


Rise of the Young Prince

by Kathihtak



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Demon Okumura Rin, Gen, Mephisto Pheles is a Little Shit, Minor Original Character(s), Okumura Rin was Raised in Gehenna, Prince Rin Okumura, Teenage Rebellion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-26 08:33:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 42,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21371218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kathihtak/pseuds/Kathihtak
Summary: Rin is taken away to Gehenna when he is a baby.When he is 15, he gets sent back to Assiah to steal Kurikara which they weren't able to obtain before.After spending some time in the human world, Rin notices that it's not as bad as his father told him. If he helped Satan destroy Gehenna, what would happen to his new found friends?
Relationships: Amaimon & Okumura Rin, Moriyama Shiemi & Okumura Rin, Okumura Rin & Iblis, Okumura Rin & Mephisto Pheles, Okumura Rin & Satan
Comments: 18
Kudos: 99





	1. Prologue

Only one moment of abstraction, that was all it needed for the demon to sneak into the monastery.

Astaroth, the Demon King of Rot, made his way into the nursery to search for the newborn Prince of Gehenna; and there he was, a small pink creature with few raven hair sleeping next to another child with a few moles. He just didn't understand how humans could find those little flesh bags cute or precious.

Carefully, he picked the demonic infant up. "I will take you home, little brother," he muttered to himself. Even if it was weak and almost completely sealed away, he could sense the demonic origin of the baby.

Astaroth turned around and walked out of the nursery leaving the second child alone.

He was looking for the cursed sword, the Paladin used to seal away the Prince's flames. Suddenly he heard loud noise which woke the baby prince who immediately began to scream and cry. "Put the baby down.", the old man who just shot at the Demon King growled.

"Too bad, Lord Satan will not be pleased if I just bring back the little prince but not his demonic heart." With these words Astaroth made his way out of a window, careful to shield the newborn from the glass. He landed gracefully on the ground, the priest ran to the window but didn't dare to shoot another bullet because he couldn't risk hitting the infant. Astaroth managed to run into a deep nearby forest, thankfully the young Prince ceased wailing. The Demon King took out a crystal flask with it on the ground he began to chant. A monstrous gateway emerged where the flask was baby had curious eyes as he stared at Astaroth, attempting to touch his face with his tiny hands. Just before he could touch him, Astaroth put the child on the gate, allowing him to get slowly sucked into the demon realm. After the infant vanished, he left the host's body returning to Gehenna.

Shortly after, the paladin, Shiro Fujimoto, arrived. He could only witness how the Gehenna Gate disappeared, taking his adoptive son with him. He fell on his knees. Why did he leave the twins alone in the nursery? If he had been there, the demon wouldn't have abducted Rin. At least they didn't manage to get to the Kurikara, so the boy would be human and maybe, just maybe, they would return him, because he was useless to them with his powers sealed away and Father Fujimoto would make sure that no demon would ever lay hand on the koma sword.

"Lord Satan," He paused, "Father, I brought back your lost son." Astaroth proclaimed, kneeling down in front of Satan's throne and holding Rin in his arms. "Where is the koma sword? Without it, my son is merely human." Satan didn't sound to happy about the missing sword.

"I'm really sorry, father, but I wasn't able to find Kurikara before the old bastard discovered me. In order to save the young prince, I had to abandon his demon heart." Explained the King of Rot. Satan nodded in understanding; while normally he would have set Astaroth ablaze, but he wanted to see his youngest son (He's excluding Yukio, because he didn't inherit Satan's flames). "Bring him to me." The king of Gehenna ordered. Astaroth came closer to the throne presented Rin to his father. The baby was asleep again, Satan was sceptical of the boy and gave a sign to a bystanding servant. "Take your prince to his room. You will take care for him from now on until he is old enough to start his training. I've got big plans for him."


	2. Chapter 1 - Playing Rough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little snippet from Rin's childhod in Gehenna. Still one of the shorter chapters.

Quicker than ever, 5 years passed and the infant grew older. For a human raised in a demon realm, he had a pretty happy childhood. Well, it was joyful, but after a certain incident, the young prince didn't have any time left for joy and fun.

** _Flashback_ **

It was a rather normal day for Rin. He scoured around the enormous castle, discovering rooms he had never seen before, and most important hiding from his babysitter, a humanoid demon belonging to Iblis, the Demon King of Fire. Rin entered the courtyard he loved to play in.

The dark stone made up everything in this castle, from the floors to the walls. It was taken over by vividly colored vegetation and withering trees. A few little green demons were jumping through the garden. Rin always forgot what they were called, but he knew, that they belonged to his big brother Amaimon. Quickly he followed the goblins and tried to catch them. "Wait! I want to play with you!" the kid shouted running after the small , he felt a firm grip lifting him off the ground and turning him around.

"What are you doing, Little Brother?" A certain monotonous voice inquired. "Amai-nii-chan!" The boy wailed smiling at his older brother.

"I told you not to call me that. My name is Am-ai-mon." He spelled out suspending the miniature human with his arm.

"They won't stop running away! I just wanted to play with them!" Rin complained attempting to swat Amaimon's jabbing fingers.

"Oh! So you want to have fun? Too bad, I can't play with you. You are far too small and far too," He paused searching for the correct words, "Human."  
"Father would try to kill me, if I hurt you" The demon thought out loud, scratching his head as he spoke.

"I'm not too small! Really! Please play with me, Big Brother!" The boys eyes shone in excitement.

"Well, okay then." Amaimon said in his typical carefree manner. The young Prince cheered and looked at his brother enthusiastically. He had never played with one of his older brothers before, because they weren't around very often.. He didn't know that Amaimon had a more rough game in mind.

"Prince Rin? Where are you?" Cysat ran throughout the castle looking for the little human he was supposed to watching. It wasn't the first time that the boy had escaped his babysitter's sight.

Until now, the fire demon managed to keep the young Prince's disappearances a secret from Lord Satan, and he would really like to keep it that way. The good thing was, that Rin always came back unharmed; otherwise, Cysat would have been executed by now.

Panic rose in the demon, it had never taken him that long to find the Prince.

Right at the moment when the fire demon wanted to turn back, looking if the boy had returned by himself to his chamber, he heard a loud scream.

Immediately, Cysat ran towards the scream had come from. When he stepped into the courtyard, all he saw was Lord Amaimon in a tree holding the Young Prince by his legs. "Isn't this fun? I'm amusing myself quite a bit." Amaimon deadpanned.

"Please let me down! I'm scared!" Rin screamed out, small tears formed in the corner of his eyes. "Well then," the King of Earth let him slip down a bit, but before he could grab him again, a burst of blue flames came from the Young Prince. They ebbed down as fast as they had burst. Amaimon let go of Rin afraid to be burned. He was absolutely flabbergasted, he did not expect that to happen.

"Young Prince!" Cysat shouted, running towards the Prince who was rapidly falling towards the hard ground.

'If something happens to him, I'm so dead...' He managed to catch the Human Prince last minute preventing most of the damage from impact.

He looked at the raven haired boy, only a few scratches could be seen at his legs and arms. He was unconscious, but not from the fall; it seemed like the sudden outburst of the flames had used up all energy the he had.

Amaimon landed next to them. "I thought he couldn't use father's flames yet. I wonder if father knows. . ." Amaimon didn't seem to care that he almost killed the sole heir of the Gehenna's throne.

A few hours later, Rin was as good as new. Someone had taken care of his wounds and he was awake again. He was still a little tired, but that didn't really matter to his father.

Rin was brought to the throne room by Cysat who was shaking terrified of punishment for losing the Prince. The fire demon kneeled down in front of the god of Gehenna, but Rin just ran towards the demon that scared even the most vicious monsters.

"Father!"He smiled. He would have climbed up the throne to sit on his father's lap, but he was stopped by the hand of the demon god.

"Rin, is it true what your brother told me? Were you able to summon the royal flames?" Satan asked as friendly as it was possible for him. Rin didn't notice, but Cysat heard a dangerous tone in his voice. The Young Prince nodded eagerly.

"Show them to me." Satan commanded.

Another few hours later, Rin sat on the ground in front of Satan. His face was contorted, his eyes reflected his determination as sweat dripped down his face. Unfortunately, not the slightest spark of fire appeared.

"The seal is stronger than I thought," He pondered.

"You, Cysat... that's your name, right? You were there when it happened. Explain the circumstances of his awakening." Ordered Satan, glaring at the servant.

"Of course, Lord Satan. The young prince was playing with Lord Amaimon when he" He paused, feeling Amaimon's glare in his back. "When he fell into a hole that was digged by some goblins. I guess the Young Prince was scared, that is when the royal flames showed themselves."

Cysat didn't dare speaking the truth and blaming Amaimon for Rin's bruises.  
He knew while the Lord Satan was terrifying when mad, his son could be just as menacing. No one wants a Demon King against them. He knew that this would mean certain death for him to say, and the Lord Satan might not even believe him.

"Hiis flames work as a defense-mechanism by reacting to his emotions." Satan concluded.

"We need that cursed sword, so I can free my son from his bindings. . . From now on, Rin will be trained, so he can go to Assiah and claim the Kurikara."

After that day, Rin's childhood was over. He trained every day for the following 10 years. At first it was hard for the child, but it became simply a daily routine. Standing up early, training, learning about Gehenna and Assiah etc.

After 10 years passing, Satan finally considered his son ready to steal Kurikara.


	3. Chapter 2 - Assiah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin's first time in Assiah and he thinks it's beautiful.

Although he was human, the demons of Gehenna were quite fond of their Prince.  
The 15-year-old looked a lot like his father. With his raven black hair, the sapphire blue eyes, the slim but muscular physique, Rin looked like a younger version of the demon king.   
But there was one major difference between father and son: the character.   
While Satan was merciless, reckless and even cruel, Rin was actually really kind and caring.   
Unfortunately, he was also really short-tempered. If he would notice any hints of someone taking advantage of him, he could be as scary as his father.   
Despite of the often distinct opinions between both, Rin was a loyal son.   
He would carry out his father's will, no matter what. A demon charged with a crime could be really lucky if the young prince attended the trial, because he could often talk his father out of the idea of executing the accused demon.  
And when the day of Rin's departure to Assiah came, thousands of Gehenna's inhabitants stood in front of the castle wishing him good luck.  
„Rin, do you know, what you have to do, when you reach Assiah?", Satan asked his son with a loud voice that echoed in the throne room. Rin was kneeling down before his father. Even the Baal were present, well, six of them, Samael and Lucifer seemed to be reside in the human world.  
„Yes. I'm going to search the Southern Cross Boys´Monastery, where the Kouma Sword is hidden. And when someone tries to stop me...", Rin stopped. He had heard a lot of stories about the exorcists, but he had never met a fellow human before. He didn't know, if he could kill a person.   
„There will be a few demons coming with you. I don't expect you to go in there on your own. Even if he is human, the guy running this church is the paladin.", Satan stated.   
„Thank you, Father"  
Rin carried only a small bag with his most valuable things along with some clothes to change.   
„I will open the gate for you in an hour. Until then, you can choose the demons, you want to come with you.", Satan decided and Rin and his brothers left their king alone.   
„Amaimon? Big Brother?", Rin immediately walked up to the king of earth.   
„What is it?", he asked chewing some of the candy he always brought back from Assiah.   
„I wondered, if I could take Behemoth with me to Assiah...", the younger one asked while scratching his head.   
„You know, I really love my Behemoth...", Amaimon took another sticky snack out of his bag.   
„Yes, I do. And I will look out for it. No one will harm it. I promise!", Rin exclaimed confidantely.   
He would protect any demon he would bring with him, since he couldn't stand the sight of a demon getting hurt.   
Everytime he always tried to avoid being present at the executions or punishments, but sometimes his father expected him to be there.   
„Okay, but only if you bring me some more candy.", the older brother agreed.   
„Thanks, Big Bro!", the prince smiled excited.   
After that he asked Iblis, Astaroth and Beelzebub for a little help.   
All, except Beelzebub, agreed. The king of insects and the prince had never been really close and Egyn, the king of water, straight up didn't like Rin, because he pulled a prank on him when he was a child.   
Half an hour later, Rin was back in the throne room.   
Behemoth, a ghoul and two salamanders were standing next to him.   
„I see, you brought some of your brothers' kin. You could have chosen any demon, even one of the Baal. Are you sure, you want to go with those?", Satan asked critically.   
„I'm sure. I want to show you, that I don't need the help of my older brothers.", the prince determined.   
„Very well. Hand me your dagger." Satan stated holding out his hand.   
Rin pulled a short golden blade from his belt and gave it to his father who cut his hand with it letting the blood drip an the floor. The Gehenna Gate opened on the ground.  
„From the moment you draw the Kouma Sword and awaken your powers, you will be able to open the gate yourself and come back. Do you understand?", the demon god asked and handed the dagger back to Rin.   
He nodded and put the blade back at his belt. Rin was shaking a bit from excitement. He had never left Gehenna before, he had never even left the castle. Carefully, he stepped into the Gehenna Gate, his four companions following him.

Darkness surrounded Rin.   
Suddenly, there was a flash of light blinding the young prince.   
He raised his arm to shield his eyes from it.   
Then, a loud noise cut through the void, he had been in while travelling through the gate.   
Light got brighter and brighter until Rin was surrounded by it.   
He looked to the ground. The gate disappeared under his feet and he was standing on grass.   
„Weird... it's green.", he commented looking around. „Wow... Everything is so much brighter than in Gehenna. This is amazing!", a big smile appeared on his face.   
He didn't even notice, that his demonic partners weren't with him. He ran out of the park he landed in and was ready to discover all the new stuff of this new world.   
When he left the park, he came to an enormous, grey space.   
„What are these white stripes on the ground for?", he asked himself.   
„Hey! Watch out, you moron!", someone shouted and he was almost run over by a a big metal box on wheels.   
„Is that one of these cars, Big Brother told me about? This is so amazing!", Rin exclaimed. He left the street he was standing on.   
„Hey! Are you some kind of a cosplayer?", a young woman asked the prince while looking on the rather strange clothes the teenager wore.   
„A what?", Rin was confused.   
„Oh I'm sorry. I just thought, that was a costume. Your clothes look so... medieval. You know... with that cloke of yours. I'm so sorry, if I offended you.", the woman explained with an apologizing look.   
„So that's not what humans usually wear?", the Gehennian prince asked.   
The young woman began to laugh. „You're a funny one!", she said.   
„Excuse me, but could you help me finding something new?", Rin was a bit embarassed and blushed.   
„You're asking a stranger for fashion advice? You know what? I'll help you. You're actually quite cute.", she smiled.   
Rin didn't know, what that was supposed to mean, but he nodded gratefully.  
A little later, Rin was standing in a small box with a curtain.   
The woman, who introduced herself as Sayu, handed him clothes in the box, so he could try them on.  
He stepped out and looked into a mirror.   
He actually liked the new style. It was way more comfortable than his old clothes.   
He wore a dark blue shirt, Sayu said was matching his eyes, and a thin, black coat over it. His pants and shoes also were completely dark grey or black.   
„That's really better! Thanks, Sayu", the boy smiled at her walking towards the exit.   
„Hey boy! You know, you have to pay for that, right?", the shopowner asked grumpily grapping Rin's shoulder.   
„Pay?", Rin thought about it. He never had to pay anything in his life before. „Oh right!", suddenly he remembered. He took a couple banknotes out of his bag.   
„That's your currency, right? My Big Brother gave that to me, so I could buy candy for him.", Rin gave the money to the shopkeeper.   
„Weird boy...", he took the money and let go of the teenager.   
„Are you coming, Sayu?", he waited for the nice girl.   
„Of course.", she followed him.   
„You're not from here, aren't you?", she asked.   
„No I'm... umm... from the south...", he answered.  
„So... can I show you around town?"  
„That would be great... but... I'm actually looking for a certain place..."  
„Your bad, I'm an amazing guide. But I can show you the way. Where do you want to go?"  
„I'm searching the Southern Cross Boys' Monastery"  
„Wow, I didn't expect you to be religious!", she laughed.  
„I'm actually not, but there is something I need from there. So, do you know, where it is?"  
„Of course! Follow me!"  
They walked for almost an hour. This city was bigger than Rin had thought, and the monastery seemed to be in the exact opposite side of town.   
On their way, Rin was amazed by the amount of people they past.   
„How many humans are there?", he asked his guide.   
„You mean, in this town? I think about 7 million...", she answered after a thinking about it.   
„I was actually talking about the whole world... not just this city... But is 7 million a lot for a town?", he questioned.   
„Do you live under a rock?", Sayu laughed again, she noticed his serious look,   
„Oh that was a real question... there are around 7 billion people out there, I think, this city has a really dense population. It's pretty normal for a major japanese city, I guess... Tokyo has around 9 million inhabitants", she explained.   
„That's cool. I didn't know, that there were so many humans. I thought there were maybe 1 million or something like that...", the prince blushed.   
In Gehenna, he didn't get taught much about Assiah and humans, but now, the boy wanted to learn everything there is about it.   
„You really did live under a rock, didn't you?", she gave him an infectious laugh.  
„And here we are. That's the monastery. Should I accompany you?", Sayu stopped and pointed at a small church.   
„That won't be necessary. When I got, what I want, I will have to go back home.", Rin stated. Also he didn't want Sayu get hurt. His father and brothers had told him how cruel exorcists could be.   
„Well, I you want to go alone, it's your choice. But let me give you my number. You can call me, if you should come back", Sayu took out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote her phone number on it. „Here, just call whenever you want." Rin took the paper. He didn't know what he was supposed to do with it, but he tried to cover up his lack of knowledge.   
„Thank you, I guess...", he said slowly.   
„Okay. See you around. And don't forget to call!", she went back from where they came from and left the prince alone.

„Where are you guys?", Rin finally noticed his missing companions. Suddenly, he remembered that the most demons didn't like Assiah's sun.   
„Guess I have to wait until it gets dark...", he thought out loud. He watched the monastery for a while, but after a while, his curiosity got to strong. He made his way to the front entry and slowly opened the door.   
There were a few uncomfortable looking benchs, an altar and a cabin with to entrances.   
„Are you just going to look or are you coming inside, boy?", a grey haired man asked him.   
„I... umm...", Rin stuttered. He hadn't expected someone. Slowly, he entered the church.   
„What brings you here today?", the priest came closer.   
„I'm looking for something precious...", the Gehennian prince looked around. Of course, he didn't expect Kurikara to just lie around somewhere, but it was worth a try.   
„Something precious? Did you lose it in here? I don't remember seeing you at a liturgy.", the man seemed to search through his memories.   
„No. I... umm... I have to go...", quickly Rin escaped the awkward situation.  
„What a weird boy..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I thought, that I should maybe explain some of my ideas for this chapter.  
First of all: The difference between Gehenna and Assiah.  
I thought about it and I came to the conclusion that I would really love a more medieval Gehenna even if it is a mirror world to Assiah. I thought that demons would rely a lot on magic and that's the reason why they have little technical advances in Gehenna. The humans of Assiah don't possess any magical powers, so they develop machines (like cars which is why Rin has never seen a car before)  
So Gehenna is kinda stuck in the medieval ages.  
If you have any questions, why I decided to do things like I did, just ask :D


	4. Chapter 3 - Awakening

Darkness set in. Even though he was fascinated by the bright colours of Assiah, Rin was glad when it got dark.   
His eyes were used to low light.   
Luckily, Behemoth and the other three demons also reappeared as the sun went down.   
„I'm going to make you proud, Father...", the teenager muttered to himself and took a deep breath in.   
Slowly, he went to the church. He was sure that there shouldn't be anyone in there. He snuck in and hid behind a bench.   
He looked around hoping that there would be a door or some other clue where he could find Kurikara.   
He convinced himself that he was alone and started lookind underneath the altar.   
Not finding anything, he searched in the host.   
Unfortunately, all he found was some flat, round, bread-like stuff, he didn't know. He smelled on one and ate it while putting its container back. It tasted like literally nothing.   
He went to the baptistal font. After that, he started knocking on the floor to check if there was a trap door. Still he found nothing.   
„Where the hell is that damn thing?", Rin growled. He slowly lost his patience.   
„Is someone there?", he suddenly heard a voice. It had to be one of the persons living in the bordering house.   
Quickly, Rin hid in a corner where a statue of a woman with blue robes holding a baby stood.   
„Is everything all right, Maruta?", a younger voice called the man standing in the church.   
„Yukio? Oh, I just thought I heard something knocking in here. I thought it may be a burglar...", the first man explained.   
„It's okay, you can go back to dinner, I'm checking for you.", the newcomer offered.   
„Thank you, Yukio-kun.", he heard steps and a door closing.   
„Hello?", the younger voice called out. Of course, Rin didn't answer, but his stomach did. He hadn't eaten thing since he came to Assiah.   
A boy in Rin's age came to the corner, he was hiding in. He had short, brown hair, cyan eyes, three moles in his face and wore glasses.   
„Who are you? What are you doing in here?", he asked seriously.   
„I... I...", Rin needed to find an excuse.   
„I was cold and hungry, so I thought that I could... It is so much warmer in here...", he stuttered.   
„What's your name? You seem to be at my age. Did we go to school together?", he questioned further.   
„My name is... Ron... yeah, it's Ron. And no, I'm kinda new here.", he improvised a story.   
„Ron? That's a weird name. If you need help, you could have just come to the monastery behind the church.", the boy, who was called Yukio before, explained.   
„You are obviously hungry. Eat with us, Ron", he offered politely.   
Rin used the chance to look around the monastery. But before that, he needed to eat something.   
If it came to a fight, he wouldn't be of much use if he was hungry. 

Awkwardly, he followed Yukio into a large kitchen, where multiple persons sat and ate.   
The six men were staring at the two newcomers.   
Rin recognized the grey-haired man, he met that afternoon.   
„That's the burglar, you heard, Maruta. His name is Ron and it seems like he was just looking for a place to stay overnight.", the teenager with the glasses introduced the prince.   
„Why didn't you say so before, boy.", the priest stood up.   
„A young boy like you shouldn't be sleeping outside. Where are your parents?", he asked with a warm, inviting voice. Rin hesistated before answering. That exorcist didn't seem half as cruel as his father told him.   
„My mother died and my father... I umm... ran away from home.", the teenager lied.   
„That sounds rough. You're welcome to stay here. What kind of monastery would we have here, if we wouldn't help a lost boy? Sit with us and eat. We have enough for all of us."  
Silently, Rin sat down and started eating.   
„So, how old are you, Ron?, one of the monks asked.   
„I'm almost sixteen.", he answered shortly. He felt really uncomfortable sitting among all these demon hating exorcists.   
„Just like Yukio here. Well, that's a coincidence.", the monk laughed. After that, Rin didn't really pay attention to the conversation. He thought about the whereabouts of Kurikara.   
„Can someone show me the bathroom?", he asked after a while.   
„Of course. Just follow me.", Yukio said and stood up. Rin followed him through a hallway.   
„Why do you live here? You're so much younger than the monks.", Rin asked the other teenager.   
„Father Fujimoto took me and my twin brother in, when we were babies.", he answered.   
„You have a twin brother? That's cool. I have a few older brothers, but I guess I would like someone my age in the family.", Rin really missed his brothers.   
„Yeah me too... My brother disappeared when we were small. Dad told me, that he was kidnapped...", Yukio told the raven haired boy.   
Hearing that made Rin feel bad for him. He also didn't know all of his brothers. He had never met the two oldest sons of Satan, Lucifer and Samael.   
„That's the bathroom.", Yukio changed the subject and pointed at a door.   
„Thanks.", Rin entered the room and waited until he heard Yukio walk away.   
He stepped out in the hallway again and started looking around. He flinched, when he suddenly heard a noise behind him.   
Slowly, he turned around and relaxed when he saw a little frog-like creature sitting on the ground before him.   
„Well, hello little reaper. How did you sneak in here?", Rin kneeled down picking him up.   
„Would you mind, helping me find something?", he asked kindly. The frog seemed to notice, that Rin wasn't completely human and croaked approving.   
„Great. Thank you. Do you know, where the strongest defences against demons is built up in here?", the prince asked the frog.   
As a demon, the reaper was able to sense demon-repelling barriers. They wouldn't stop Rin, but he wasn't able to sense them either.   
The reaper jumped off Rin's hand and made his way through the monastery.

„He definetely takes his time in the bathroom. Maybe someone should check after him.", Maruta said.   
The monks were still sitting in the kitchen waiting for the boy's return.   
„It's okay... I look after him.", Yukio sighed.   
„Don't bother, Yukio. I go check.", Father Fujimoto left the kitchen. The priest had a certain feeling, so he first went to his own room where the koma sword was stored.   
He wasn't that suprised, when he caught their guest trying to pick the lock of Shiro's room.   
Next to him was sitting a small frog. He didn't know how a reaper made its way into the monastery, but he guessed that it was influencing that teenager.   
„Hold it right there, boy." Rin blanched. He hadn't noticed the man walking up to him.   
Carefully, Rin picked up the reaper hiding it behind his back.   
„Umm... okay, I confess... I'm a cleptomaniac and thought, I could find anything in the locked room.", the prince lied quickly.   
„No, you're not. The demon led you here, so you could steal Kurikara. But demons lie, don't listen to it. Whatever it promised, it's just using you."   
Rin was confused by the priest's words. Why would a demon lie to him?   
The man started reciting phrases. The little frog started to wince and seemed to be in pain.   
„Wait! What are you doing to him? Stop it!", Rin shouted.   
He could do nothing but watch the little demon die in his hands. It disappeared and Rin clenched his fists.   
„I promised that no demon would die under my watch... HOW DARE YOU MAKING ME BREAK THAT PROMISE?", the teenager was shocked and angry at the old man.   
In his rage, he punched against the locked door which just gave in and flew inside the room.   
The other inhabitants of the monastery heard the noise and the shouting and arrived at the scene.   
„What's going on?", Yukio asked while having one hand on a concealed gun. They all looked at Rin.   
„He's trying to steal the sword. Isn't that right, Rin?", Shiro asked the boy.   
This outburst and the strength to destroy a door with one punch had led him to the conclusion that this was in fact Yukio's older twin brother.   
The prince didn't know, how they could know his name, but he used the sudden confusion of Yukio, who seemed to be the only one carrying a gun, to run into Shiro's room.   
There it was. Kurikara, the demon slaying blade, was laying on a shrine-like table with runes around it.   
A demon wouldn't be able to touch the sword, but Rin wasn't a demon.   
He couldn't believe that he made it.   
He reached out for the sword, when a sudden blast ripped his feet from the ground.   
The floor gave in and he fell down.   
Landing hard on the floor below, it was like his breath was forced out of his lunges.   
It took him a while to stand up. He came to his feet when the exorcists made their way down.   
Rin gave off a sharp whistle, only seconds after that, Behemoth and the other demons stormed in ready to protect their prince.   
One of the salamanders supported Rin, who had sprained his ankle and dislocated his shoulder in the fall.   
The demons weren't attacking. They just stood protective there in front of Rin.   
„Rin! Is that really you?", Yukio asked while pointing two guns on Behemoth.   
„How do you know my name?", the prince shouted.   
„He won't listen to you, Yukio. He was raised in Gehenna. He is here so he can become a demon.", Shiro stood behind Rin.   
„But, he's my brother! I have to talk to him!", Yukio insisted.   
„I do have 8 brothers, but you are certainly not one of them, human!", Rin declined.   
The younger one noticed that it didn't make any sence to argue with him. His look wasn't exactly hateful, it was mixture of anger, fear, pain and the will to protect the creatures around him.   
„Just give me, what belongs to me.", Rin demanded limping towards them.   
„We can't do that. This sword is the only thing preventing Satan to attack Assiah.", Shiro refused while pulling a gun out.   
„I really don't want to hurt you, since I made a promise to your mother, but if you leave me no choice...", he pointed the gun at Rin.   
The salamander next to Rin growled.   
„Send away those demons or we have to use violence.", the paladin threatend the demon prince.   
„I can't. They have orders and won't listen to me when I tell them to go away.", Rin answered.   
„Then you leave us no choice."  
There was shooting and chanting of bible verses.   
Behemoth tossed Rin behind a closet so he wouldn't get hurt.   
Rin watched in terror as the salamanders and the ghoul were taken down after a short while.   
He couldn't leave his cover because a single bullet would kill him.   
Behemoth put up a much bigger fight to the exorcists.   
„Stop it! Don't hurt him!", Rin crawled forth the closet. „Stop!"  
Behemoth struggled against that many exorcists.   
He wouldn't make it without help.   
**„STOP IT!"**, Rin yelled. Blue flames burst out like an explosion.   
While Shiro, Yukio and Maruta managed to get themselves to safety behind a corner, the other four didn't have that much luck.   
When the flames ebbed down they were screaming in pain for the heavy burns all over their bodies.   
Maruta, Shiro and Yukio went to check their injuries, but they were to bad.   
Behemoth picked up a very drained Rin and jumped up to the first floor where Kurikara was still laying.   
Shiro tried to follow them, but he was to late.   
Rin took the sword out of the protective barrier before passing out. Behemoth ripped a giant hole in the wall and brought the prince to safety.   
Shiro managed to hit the demon with a few bullets, but he didn't kill him.   
Under a lot of curses he took out his phone and called an old „friend".

  
Amaimon's pet brought Rin to a frozen lake, where he slided of his back landing in freshly fallen snow.   
Behemoth let Kurikara fall out of his mouth next to the prince.   
The sudden cold of the snow woke Rin up.   
„What? Where am I?", he asked. Then he saw Behemoth licking some of his wounds.   
„What have they done to you? I'm so sorry...", he limped over to the large, green demon but tripped over the sword that was laying in front of him.   
„That's Kurikara... I got it...", he realised relieved.   
But then it struck him. Four demons died because of him. Four demons he swore to protect.   
Maybe his father was right and humans really were a cruel, mercyless race, but then he thought about Sayu, who had helped him, when he landed in Assiah.   
Although, she probably wouldn't have helped him, if she had known, that he was the son of Satan.   
He sat down, since his ankle still hurt.   
Then he reached out for the sword with his left hand, but someone was faster.   
A tall man was standing before him.   
„What the... who are you?", Rin asked concerned that it was another exorcist.   
„So you really managed to get you heart back, little brother.", the man in the overexaggerated white and pink suit.   
„Little brother? What are you talking about? I've never seen you before, you clown.", the prince growled.   
„Oh... right... I haven't been in Gehenna for a while... I think it's been over 200 years... well, how time flies. It feels like it was yesterday when I found you in that cave.", he declared making a weird dramatic pose.   
„You... You are Samael, aren't you?", Rin asked. He heard a few things about the King of Time.   
Some said he betrayed Satan, others said he was on a special mission to destroy the Vatican, but the prince didn't know what he could believe.   
„Please call me Mephisto. Nobody is calling me Samael around here. So, now you have the opportunity to become a demon, the true heir of the Gehennian throne... but do you really want that?", the demon said in a playful voice.   
„What do you mean? Why wouldn't I want that?", Rin was confused. He wanted to make his father proud, but now that he had actually been to Assiah, he had some doubts.   
„You've seen Assiah now for the first time and you can't deny that you liked it.", Mephisto had beem secretely watching the boy since he stepped out of the gate.   
„Everything is so bright and colorful, and they have really good food and the humans seem to be happy all the time...", Rin thought out loud.   
„Now, it's winter. You should see it in spring or summer. It's really warm and there are a lot of animals.", Mephisto started telling him about Assiah more, which increased the doubts in the prince.   
He knew, that he couldn't be sure that he was allowed to come back after he returned to Gehenna.   
„I'm giving you a choice. Either you stay here, leave Kurikara with me and live a human life in this beatiful world as long as the sword can hold your power, which could last a day, a month or even years, or you take the sword, unsheath it and become the prince of Gehenna. I leave that up to you, but you have to decide now.", the king of time offered.   
Rin thought that the decision should be easy, but it really wasn't. His father was counting on him and he was the only one other person that had the power of the blue flames.   
But Assiah was this whole new world, where no one could tell him what to do. He could go back to Sayu and maybe he could get to know even more humans.   
He could eat the candy, Amaimon loved so much, everyday.   
What was the right choice?   
Was there even a right choice?   
He looked at Behemoth and remembered the demons that had to die.   
„Someone has to protect them... and fight those exorcists. I have to take the risk that I could never return here, but the demons raised me. They are my family. All of them. Give me the sword, Mephisto.", he determined.   
„Well, if that's your choice, fine.", Samael declared and threw the sword back to his new owner. Rin tried to catch it, but failed since his shoulder still was dislocated.   
„Oh, let me help you there.", Mephisto said and gave Rin's shoulder a seemingly soft touch, but the strength behind it was enough for Rin's shoulder to spring back in its joint.   
A little cry of pain made it out of Rin's mouth and he was grabbing his arm.   
„Well, once you unsheath it, your demon abilities will heal you. I'll leave you alone then. Send Father my regards, will you? Eins, Zwei, Drei.", with this words Mephisto disappeared in a cloud of pink smoke.   
Rin was creeped out by the demon.   
Why had he offered him a human life?   
Was that a test from his father?   
Did he want to test Rin's loyalty?   
Slowly he picked up Kurikara. He was a little nervous.   
„Okay... now or never...", he sighed. Then he pulled the sword from its sheath. Blue flames errupted from his body, but he didn't feel dizzy or tired like he used to when he used his flames.   
Rin felt his canines grow in his mouth.   
The pain in his shoulder and ankle disappeared and he felt something new.   
He couldn't describe it. It was like a fifth limb was growing out of his back. Rin looked behind him and saw a furry, soft tail.   
Curiously, he touched it carefully when he saw that his nails had grown too.   
„Wow...", that was all he could say. He was amazed by his transformation. Strength and power were flowing to the boy's body.   
He had never felt so alive. He looked at Behemoth who was cowering before the blue flames.

„Where is he?", Shiro asked the demon king that just appeared before him.   
„He is in the woods. Unfortunately, I was too late.", Mephisto answered with a shrug.   
„You fucking liar. You're the king of time. How can you be late?", the paladin gritted his teeth.   
Altough he hadn't smoked a cigarette in almost 16 years, he felt like needing one right now.   
„Well, you caught me. The blade wouldn't have contained his power for much longer anyway. And although he really seemed to like Assiah, he remained loyal to his father. Even if I had brought the sword back, what would we have done with the kid? He wouldn't be able to return to Gehenna, of course I could have taken care of him, but I kind of didn't want to. I'm really not good with children.", Pheles explained.   
„So he is a demon now?", Yukio had listened to the conversation.   
„Seems like it.", Shiro grumbled.   
„Too bad... I was really looking forward to get to know him.", the youngest son of Satan said disappointed.   
He knew that if would ever see his lost twin brother again, people would expect from him to fight.   
„Our father didn't tell little Rin about you. For all he knows, his only brothers are the 8 demon kings and you're an exorcist. Who knows, if he would even want to get to know you.", Mephisto lokked at a small pink watch around his wrist.   
„Well, I have to go now. Can't be late for the coronation of Gehenna's prince. Maybe I will hear something about Satan's plans, now that Rin awakened his powers. Auf Wiedersehen!", he waved shortly and disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you wondering why sometimes my quotation marks are on the bottom, that's just how we do it in Germany and my computer does it automatically.


	5. Chapter 4 - Coronation

Rin's cut bleed onto the ground, holding the Kurikara in his other hand.

His blood dripped onto pure white snow, staining it red. After he recited the right phrases, the Gehenna Gate started forming itself and the wound healed. The newborn demon smiled as he imagined what his father would say to him. Would he be proud? Maybe he would make him a Demon King and he could travel to Assiah whenever he wanted to.

Rin stepped into the gate and darkness surrounded him. The warm, dry air of the Demon Realm greeted the Prince. He was standing in a small village in front of Satan's Castle. He put away Kurikara and the blue flames around him disappeared.

"It's working like a switch." Rin noticed looking at himself. His flames were gone but other features like his tail were still present. "Did you see that? Those were Lord Satan's flames." He heard a demon mumbling. He had never been able to understand non-humanoid demons, but now he could hear what they were saying. "I've seen him before, when I was in the castle once. He was standing in a corner watching a trial. But I remember him being. . . human." The other small demon answered.

Rin ignored them and slowly walked up to the front gate. "Hello?" He asked knocking on the gigantic door. He cleared his throat so he would sound mightier and more confident. "Open the gate!" He shouted and battered the gate. It opened for a tiny bit and one of the tall guards looked down at Rin.

"Who wants to enter the castle of the great Satan?" He asked harshly. Rin could understand that the guard didn't recognize him. He had never been near the gates and was never allowed to go outside either. Even though every demon had heard about Rin almost nobody knew what he looked like.

"His son. Please tell him that Rin has returned." Rin had to look up to look into the guards face.

The demon grunted amused. "I need a proof for that, you brat." He said smirking and not taking Rin seriously. The Prince took his sword from his back and unsheathed it. Instantly, the blue flames danced over the boy's body and formed two little horns on his head. Immediately, the guard kneeled down. "Forgive me, my Prince. I should have known it was you. Please have mercy. No one expected you would be back so soon." The guard whimpered.

"It's fine, really. Just tell my father, I'm back." Rin was getting uncomfortable. He didn't like the fact that the demons were afraid of the blue flames. He wanted to protect them after all.

The guard escorted him to the throne room where Satan already seemed to be waiting. Rin should have known, that his father always knew what was going on in the castle.

"So you returned, my son." The Demonic God welcomed the Prince.

"Yes, father." The raven haired Prince smiled. Proudly, he presented Kurikara by unsheathing it and releasing his flames.

"How did it go?" Satan asked expecting a flawless execution. "Well. . . umm. . ." Rin didn't want to tell his father that three of the four demons that accompanied him had died.

"Speak." He demanded an answer. "Only Behemoth survived the mission. I tried to sneak in, but I was discovered. I pretended to be a runaway and they let me in. I guess they suspected that someone would try to steal the sword and it came to a fight. . ." Rin looked to the ground and let the sword he had proudly presented before fall.

"You obtained the sword but you haven't really shown any leadership skills. If you had planned everything through and ambushed the exorcists, you could have carried out your mission with less fatalities." Satan sounded disappointed maybe even a bit angry. "I'm sorry, Father. . . I" Rin said ruefully. But Satan interrupted him. "Originally, I had planned to make you a Demon King. Since Lucifer and Samael seem to reside in Assiah now, their domains remain without a ruler but you disappointed me, my son." He stated harshly.

"After your official coronation as the Prince of Gehenna, I will see what your assignment will be. Don't expect an important position until you proved yourself. Now hand me the sword. I will take care of it until we release your powers completely at your coronation." His father's words hurt Rin. Discouraged, he gave Kurikara to Satan and went to his chambers. He knew that he could have prevented the demons' deaths somehow, but he thought that it would have been wrong to just ambush the exorcists. Before they knew who he was, they were actually really nice and this guy named Yukio. . . maybe it was true and they really were brothers. No, although Rin knew that he was born in Assiah, there was no way that he could have a brother and his father hadn't told him about him. But why would they tell lies? Why should Yukio say that they were brothers, if it wasn't true.

On his way, the Prince bumped into someone. "Little Brother, you're back." Amaimon stated while looking at his depressed little brother. "Did you bring the candy? I'm running out of lollipops." Amaimon stated with a sense of urgency.

"Oh... I'm sorry, Amaimon, but I needed the money you gave me to buy these clothes. Otherwise, I would have stood out too much." Rin apologized.

"You forgot it? Well, if you're that sloppy it's no wonder why father won't make you a king. . ." The King of Earth said carelessly.

"How. . . how do you know that? I just talked to father!" The fire demon clenched his fists. Why did Amaimon have to make fun of him right now? "Some coaltars told me. So, since you won't be a King, maybe you become my underling. I'll make you call me Master Amaimon then. . ." The Earth King teased. He was really bored and now that Rin was a demon, maybe he could put up a fight against him. The newborn demon still was a bit on edge because he had to get used to his newfound powers first.

"Shut it, Amaimon." He growled while the blue flames ignited again. "Wow, you really can summon father's flames whenever you want now. But they're so small no wonder, that father thinks, you can't handle responsibility." Amaimon said with a shrug. With that, Rin had enough. He attacked his older brother who underestimated him by far. The King of Earth broke through one of the windows landing in the courtyard. "That's what I'm talking about." He smiled standing up and blocking Rin's next punch. They threw a few punches at each other before Amaimon's interest faded. "You're not even using your flames. Come on, little brother!" Amaimon's smile widened, "Or are you too weak?"

He scratched Rin across the face leaving a few bleeding claw marks in his cheek and nose.

The Prince stumbled back, "Stop calling me weak, you green-haired bastard!" His words shocked Amaimon. Rin had never been disrespectful to anyone. He concluded that Rin's awakened demonic side fuelled his anger and made him lose control more easily. The younger pulled two daggers from his belt which where instantly covered in blue flames. He gritted his teeth and stormed towards Amaimon but the King of Earth didn't really have a hard time dodging Rin's attacks. Then, he used his chance and grabbed his little brother by his tail which he let carelessly exposed. His body froze in shock and pain. "Don't you know that it's really dumb to leave your tail exposed like that?" The King of Earth asked and threw Rin against a stone wall. That helped Rin to recover his senses. He was still angry at Amaimon but he realized that he didn't stand a chance against his brother. Not yet. He got up and walked away while mumbling curses.

* * *

After a week, Rin had mostly gotten used to his powers. He had to. After all, it was his sixteenth birthday and a loss of control at his coronation would be more than inappropriate. The Prince looked at himself in a mirror. The sight of the pointy ears, sharpened canines, and tail still felt strange to him. He wore a black, gallant doublet and an also black mantle covering his shoulders. It was so long that the tip of his tail was barely visible at the bottom of it.

Rin took a deep breath. He prefered the clothes he bought in Assiah, but everyone seemed to insist that he should wear traditional, formal clothes for his coronation.  
Today, Satan would break Kurikara. Today, he would officially be introduced as the heir of Gehenna's throne and every demon would know his face. Today, he would not become a Demon King, but get assigned to a rather unimportant task. He left his room and made his way towards Satan's throne room. Before the festivities started, he wanted to talk to his father. Maybe he could prevent getting sent to Egyn's domain. Everything was always wet and there were seas everywhere. For a fire demon like Rin, it was the worst place he could imagine. When he stepped into the throne room, the first thing he saw was his father talking to a man he didn't expect to see again.

Mephisto Pheles was leaned against the throne and casually telling Satan a story about his time in Assiah. When they noticed Rin, the white and pink dressed demon gave him a bright smile which seemed kinda off.

"Rin, I heard you've already met your second oldest brother. Why didn't you tell me about it when you came back?" Satan asked. It wasn't like he was really interested in Rin's answer but he liked to know if the boy maybe had kept more things that happened in Assiah a secret.   
"I guess, I didn't think it was important." The Prince didn't dare looking into his father's eyes, because he didn't know if Satan was still mad at him. He had thought about his encounter with Mephisto but the way he stood there next to Satan, it didn't seem like he was a traitor. So maybe the story about Mephisto playing the exorcists was true. "I'm sorry, Father." He quickly added.

"Nothing is unimportant when it has to do with one of your brothers." Satan lectured his youngest son.

"I actually have to ask you something about my brothers. . ." Rin said with a little more confidence. Satan was a bit surprised but with a wave of his hand he allowed him to speak.   
"When I was in Assiah there was this boy, one of the exorcists, and he claimed to be my twin brother. I didn't believe him of course. You told me that humans lie about a lot of things but his words kind of stuck with me and since I was born in Assiah. . ." Rin began to explain.  
"You want to know if the boy said the truth. Well, I don't see a reason why I should keep this from you any longer. It is true that your mother gave birth to twins but your brother was weak and not able to host the royal flames. Does that answer your question?" Satan told Rin nonchalantly.

The teenager was speechless. He was just staring at Satan. He actually had a younger brother and no one had told Rin about. He took a deep breath to ask Satan if he could go back and look for him but he hesitated. He realized that it was a stupid question and his father would never allow it. But secretly, he made a plan to go back to Assiah and search Yukio. Rin was a demon and Yukio was an exorcist but they were also brothers, maybe he would listen to him. Only Mephisto seemed to notice the Princes' hesitation although he didn't say anything.

"It's time. Every strong demon of Gehenna is waiting in front of the gates. Now get prepared for the ceremony and go fetch the sword, my son." Satan ordered Rin. The Prince left the room and made his way to Kurikara's repository.  
Since he came back it was placed unsheathed in a protected room. The guards greeted him and opened the steel door for their Prince. He went in and took Kurikara.

When he returned to the throne room he heard hundreds of voices inside.

"There is no turning back now." He muttered to himself standing in front of the gigantic gate. He strengthened his grip around the koma sword. The door opened and everyone looked in his direction. He could see all kinds of demons: salamanders, furfurs, ghouls, reapers and many more; even a seraphim, a demon of Lucifer's kin, was present.

At the end of the hall sat Satan on his big, black throne, next to him stood seven of the eight demon kings, Samael, Azazel, Iblis, Egyn, Astaroth, Amaimon and finally Beelzebub. Confidently, Rin started walking towards them while his black cloak waved behind him. He could here some muffled voices from the demons that watched the ceremony.

"I imagined him taller. He is so much smaller than Lord Satan."

"Maybe, it's because he is half-human."

"Maybe, I hear he is a weakling."

"I heard, that he screwed up his first mission."

"I heard, he has never killed anyone. Maybe, he really is weak."

"Stop it. He's the future king. Show some respect."

The Prince tried to ignore them but it wasn't that easy. His advanced hearing and the telepathic connection he had with most of the demon races were really hard to turn off.

Finally, he reached his father's throne. As soon as he stopped, Satan raised his voice. "You've all come here today to witness the official coronation of my son who succeeded to wield the noble blue flames. From this day on, he will be able to embrace the full extent of his powers after the seal the humans placed on him is completely broken."

He reached out and a few little flying demons took Kurikara from Rin, placing it in the Demonic God's hand. Rin closed his eyes, at first, nothing happened, but when Kurikara made a first cracking sound, indescribable pain spread near the Prince's heart. He clenched his chest crying out in pain. His flames bursted out uncontrollably and with every split Kurikara got, they became bigger and more violent. He fell down on his knees struggling for breath. At the moment, the sword was completely snapped in two the flames had disappeared. Rin could breathe again and the pain in his chest was gone. He was left gasping, sweat running down his forehead.

"Stand up. You're a full-fledged demon now." Satan commanded. It took a while until he could find the strength to get on his feet. The prince tried to hide his shaking hands by doubling his fists. He looked up and saw that Satan signaled him to come closer. Rin followed the request and finally stood next to his father who placed a slim crown made out of blackened metal and sapphires on the teenager's head.

"Welcome the heir of Gehenna's throne!" He declared while laying his arm around Rin's shoulder. The boy was still too perplexed to show any emotion, he was just staring at the crowd of demons that shouted, clapped, and roared. Everything around him seemed muted and his head hurt. He lost track of time and found himself in a great ballroom standing next to his father.

"I think, I should go to bed." He muttered holding his head. Dizziness overcame him and he stumbled back to his room. He didn't really notice what was going on around him. Everything was so loud and fuzzy, Rin was relieved when he reached his chambers and the noise was shut off.

* * *

"What's going on? Shouldn't I feel better? Stronger?" He muttered to himself. "Well, if you really want to know," A flamboyant voice caught his attention. "What are you doing here, Mephisto?" Rin asked growling slightly.

"Oh, so you don't want to know. I guess I leave you alone then." The King of Time made his way to the door.

"Wait! Tell me!" The Prince stopped him.

"Na gut, Kurikara wasn't just sealing your powers away. It acted like training wheels. After a week, you just weren't ready. Your half-human body suddenly became almost fully demonic. Just take a long nap, you won't sleep very well, but you will give your body the time to accept itself." Mephisto explained.

"And that's it? After that I will go back to normal?" That question made the purple haired man laugh. "Of course not! Your human half is now completely suppressed. You will probably develop some rather unusual habits, well unusual for you. They're pretty normal for a demon and you will need a lot of training to overcome them. I remember Amaimon needed almost a century to manage."  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rin clenched his fists while glaring at Mephisto. "You will find out. I will go back to the party now. Cheerio, little one." Before Rin could say anything, Mephisto had disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Very helpful, jerk." He mumbled, laying down in his bed. "Becoming a demon is far more stressful than I thought."

Earlier that day, Satan had gotten a rather unusual visitor. "Samael, what brings you back to Gehenna? Aren't you playing with those pathetic humans anymore?" He greeted his second oldest son who had just entered the throne room. "Well, I can't miss my brother's coronation, can I? You'll probably make him a king, since Lucifer and I aren't around very often, right?" The King of Time asked grinning. "Actually, that was my original plan." The Demon God admitted.

Even though Samael was considered a traitor among most of the demons, Satan knew that he was just playing with the exorcists like a child was playing with a pet. "Oh? You're so you changed your mind?" Mephisto was indeed surprised by his father. "He is not ready to be a leader, although, he cares about his subordinates, maybe even too much, he is too weak to actually command them. Sometimes I think, he takes too much after his mother. Until he learns, what it means to be a king, I will probably assign him to Azazel, since he is his oldest present brother." Satan told him with a bit disappointment in his voice.

"Azazel? But he is so boring. With time he has become as tiring as his spirits." He exclaimed dramatically.  
"I have an idea. How about I take care of Rin? I'll take him to Assiah with me. Believe me, he will want to return either way. I met him shortly before he came back here and he was almost ready to betray you and stay there. I think, it's better when he returns with me instead of alone and uncontrollably." Mephisto offered in a playful manner. "What? I should entrust the heir of the blue flames to someone, everyone thinks is a traitor?" Satan gave him a short, sinister laugh. "Of course! The more he can learn about Assiah, the easier it will be to conquer it, right? And as I said, he will return either way." The white suited man insisted.


	6. Chapter 5 - Welcome back, little Demon!

When Rin woke up he wasn't in his bed anymore. He wasn't even in his room. He looked around and noticed that he was laying on a pink and white bed. The sun shone through the big windows and he stood up to look outside. He was high up in a tower and saw a complex of stone buildings that were built in a circle around a tall broad building.

"Guten Morgen, Rin-kun. [Good Morning]" Mephisto entered the the room and Rin concluded that the older demon had taken him away from home.   
"Where am I? Why did you bring me here?" He reached out for the dagger which he carried always on his belt, but he couldn't find it.   
"Oh, are you afraid? Now I know what Father meant. The future King of Gehenna shouldn't be afraid so easily. Tell me, were you scared when you went to steal Kurikara?" His brother asked curiously. "What are you talking about?" The Prince was confused, his tail twitched nervously.

"Your confusion is too cute, little brother. I thought Father had told you about it. You are supposed to study to become a King and I will be your marvelous teacher!" He explained dramatically.   
"You?! Why did he choose you? I thought it would be Iblis or Amaimon!" Rin was shocked. He didn't know what he was supposed to learn from this guy who didn't seem to take anything seriously.  
"Iblis? Yes, that would make sense since he is the King of Fire, but Amaimon? He is so childish and always wants to fight everyone. But I'm your oldest brother, well, the oldest brother that actually cares. You can't really count Lucifer." Mephisto enlightened the young Prince.

"And where am I?" Rin didn't completely trust him yet. "Where do you think you are? In Assiah, of course. True Cross Academy, to be specific." The older brother grinned.

"True Cross Academy? Isn't that the place where the exorcists are trained? Why did you bring me here?" Again fear could be heard in Rin's voice. Last time he met exorcists they almost killed all of his companions and now that he was a demon, they would try to kill him too.

Mephisto laughed. "Why I brought you here? I'm the headmaster of this school. While we're here, I'm Johann Faust, understand?"

"So you are a traitor! You're working with the exorcists! How could you betray Father?" Rin accused his older brother. That made Mephisto laugh even more.

"Please stop it. I can't take it anymore." He held his stomach. "The world isn't just black and white. It's fun to play with the little humans. Sometimes I help them, sometimes I don't, but I got the Vatican to trust me, that means I can do whatever I want. Sometimes I even send some information to Gehenna." Mephisto explained.

"What do you mean?"

"Father knows that I'm working with the exorcists and he still lets me take care of his precious heir."

Rin was just staring at him in disbelief.

"You really are a bit slow, aren't you? Well, that doesn't matter. But what does matter is the fact that you want to meet Yukio. Before you run away from me and look for him on your own and probably cause a mess, I will arrange a meeting. Since Yukio is living in this school it won't be that hard. Unfortunately, I can't allow you to leave this tower. You will have to learn to behave and more important look human. Those little flame horns on your head are a no-go. I can't risk anyone to find out that I'm giving shelter to the son of Satan. Even if it could turn out interesting. . ." The Demon King instructed the teenager.   
Rin looked into a mirror, hanging on the other side of the room. Mephisto was right, the two little horns made of blue flames were still on his head and another little blaze was burning at the tip of his tail. His ears were elfish and his pupils were bright red.   
A part of him was confused and shocked about his appearance, another part felt betrayed. If he had looked like this when he lived in Gehenna, the other demons wouldn't have avoided him and wouldn't have constantly been afraid of hurting him. Now that he was in Assiah, he would stand out again.

"You didn't expect to turn back to your human form just like that, did you? You are so naive. Kurikara isn't sealing your powers anymore. You will have to learn to maintain it on your own." Mephisto was shaking his head.   
"And how do I do that?" Rin asked slightly annoyed. He wanted to learn it as fast as possible, so he could meet Yukio.

"First of all, you need to get rid of that attitude. Not because it will help you look human, but I don't feel like helping you like that." Mephisto snapped his fingers. Rin rolled his eyes and put up a sarcastic smile.   
"Great! Secondly, it is all a matter of concentration. You need to focus on something. Before, Kurikara was your anchor, now you need to find something new." Samael explained.

"What's your anchor?"

"Oh Rin, I am way too old to need something like that, du Dummerchen. [you dummy]" He laughed it off.

That didn't really help the teenager.

"So you're saying that I just need some crap to focus on?" He asked.

"This is going to be hard," The King of Time sighed, "Of course not! It must be something you feel emotionally connected to." Mephisto started feeling like talking to a small, really stupid child.

"An emotional connection?"

"Yes! How often do I have to tell you? Why did I sign up for this again? Have you always been that stupid?"

"I'm not stupid! You're just a crappy teacher!"

"Excuse me? Is that how you address your elders?"

"Yes, when my elders are crappy!"

"Didn't they teach you some manners? Oh what am I talking about? Most demons are rude little beasts. Well, I don't have to listen to that anymore. Unlike you, I can leave this room. I hate being strict, but there you have it. Train until I come back and be nicer next time." Mephisto walked out of the room, leaving Rin alone.

"You're the stupid one. . ." He said pouting and crossed his arms.

After Mephisto was gone, Rin sat down in front of the window. The sun was just rising and made the snow which layed everywhere started shimmering. It was the most beautiful thing Rin had ever seen.

"If I want to go out there, I have to hide my appearance and probably be nice to Mephisto." He thought out loud.   
Especially the second part would be hard for the Young Prince.   
The older demon just had nothing that let Rin take him seriously, but he acted all high and mighty in Rin's eyes. He stood up and looked around.   
"How am I supposed to find anything with an emotional connection when all my stuff is still in Gehenna?" He started searching through some drawers and shelves.   
To his surprise, Rin actually found his precious dagger in one of them. It was the first gift, he had received from his father.   
He had been ten years old and it was the day he first attended a trial.   
A sharp, golden blade with a gemmed handle made it a deadly but beautiful weapon. When he was smaller, Rin used to accidentally cut himself when he trained with it.

If he had an emotional connection to any object, it was this dagger.

Now, he sat down in front of the mirror and tried to concentrate on the dagger and his human form. For a second, the red spark in his pupils vanished but immediately returned. This went on for a few hours and was only interrupted by Mephisto who came back to bring Rin some food.

"I see, you are taking this seriously. Let's make a deal. If you can hide your demonic features in a week, I allow you to go out and watch the new year festivities and meet your brother." He said while putting down a plate with some weird, brown food Rin had never seen before.

"Really? One week? I know I can do this!" The Prince was motivated by this chance and stood up excitedly. He took the plate and looked at it. "Umm. . . what is that? It smells so sweet." He looked at Mephisto waiting for an answer. "That's Kuchen, I mean cake." The King of Time explained.

Cautiously, Rin took a bite and his eyes began to shine. "That's the most amazing thing I've ever tasted! Can I get more of this?" He quickly ate the rest of the chocolate cake.

"Well, you actually don't need to eat anything at all like ever again but if you want to; I can bring you cake more often." Mephisto was surprised by Rin's excitement and cooperative behaviour.   
He blamed puberty for the teenager's mood swings. The boy nodded and ate every last crumb on the plate.   
"Okay then, just practice some more. I will leave you alone." Mephisto certainly had taken interest on his little brother's development.

* * *

Rin practiced every day from now on and after almost five days, he pretty much got the hang of it.

Although, he still had slightly pointy ears, sharpened canines and the tail, he looked actually human. He knocked on the door hoping Mephisto would hear him. Rin didn't even know if he was at the other side of it because he was always using some weird keys to get in and out but it was worth a try.

"Why are you making so much noise?" Rin could hear Mephisto's annoyed voice on the other side.

Mephisto opened the door looking at his little brother. "See! I'm looking like a human!" Rin presented proudly.   
"Well, almost. Just hide that tail of yours and I think you're good to go. I don't understand why you leave it out in the open like this. A gentleman always knows how to hide his weak spots." He judged him critically.

Quickly, Rin let his tail slip under his shirt. "And now, I want to see my brother! You promised!" The teenager exclaimed eagerly.   
"Alright, alright." The Demon King rolled his eyes. "I will bring him here."

"Forget it. I want to go to him. I haven't left this room since I got here. I want to go outside!" Rin made his point clear. He heard Mephisto mutter something about him being annoying but then he nodded. "Don't cause any trouble, verstanden [understand]?"

Rin followed his older brother through the door and they suddenly stood outside.   
"What? How? Is that some kind of portal?" He asked looking behind him but not seeing where they came from.   
"I'm the King of Space and Time. Do you think I would walk anywhere? Now come, Yukio should be on his way to the cram school. Ah! Speak of the devil." Laughing about his last comment, he pointed at a figure coming in their rolled his eyes at Mephisto's corny pun.   
"Great!" Rin looked at the brown haired boy approaching them. The moment Yukio saw the two demons they stopped.   
"What the fuck?" Rin heard him say confused.

Rin waved happily at him which made the boy's confusion only bigger and bigger. He seemed to be unsure if he should come closer. Carefully, he made his way to the demons while laying one hand on his gun.   
"Mephisto? What. . . What is he doing here?" He asked full of suspicion.   
"Well, he wanted to meet you after he found out that he has another brother. I'll leave you two alone. I really love drama but unfortunately I have plans." Samael poofed out of sight.   
"Umm. . . hey, your name is Yukio, right? I'm Rin." The older twin had a big smile on his face.

"You're a demon. Why would you want to meet me?" Yukio still wasn't sure if he could trust Mephisto concerning Rin.   
"Well, you're my brother. I just thought that we didn't really have time to talk back in the monastery." Rin scratched his head.   
"You want to talk? Yes, back then I wanted to talk too but then you killed two priests and left two others with burns and scars all over their bodies!" Yukio clenched his fists.

"I really didn't mean to do that but you killed the demons that were with me. I just wanted to protect them." The Young Demon defended himself.   
The conversation went into the complete opposite direction than Rin wanted it to.   
"And that's why I'm here. I screwed up and now that idiot Mephisto is my teacher." He continued explaining. "Please, I just want to get to know you."

"Get to know me? How can I trust you? You're the son of Satan. You could be planning something."

"You're also his son. We're twins, you idiot."

"I'm human. I'm definitely not the son of Gehenna's ruler. My father is Shirou Fujimoto."

"That doesn't change the fact that we're still brothers."

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't shoot you right now."

"I'm not attacking you. Why would you shoot someone who's not threatening you? Or is that how exorcists operate?"

"It's definitely what demons do."

"Most demons aren't even harming humans on purpose. It's just like. . . It's like an aura around them. Believe me, growing up in Gehenna taught me that many demons just want to live in peace."

"Peace? Satan is trying to conquer Assiah!"

"He wants to unite the worlds. He just follows the wrong path but I can show him another way." The last thing was a total lie. He was definitely not able to change Satan's mind in any way.

"You would really do that? Why?"

"Yes! I actually really like Assiah. You have cars and amazing cities and cake. I'm really fond of that last thing. I mean, have you tried it? If Father would conquer all this, it would probably become a second Gehenna and that would be really boring." Rin smiled.

"Umm. . . yes, I have eaten cake before" Yukio started to wonder about the teenager. He couldn't understand how someone could be so overjoyed by something like cake.

"You know what? I'm not trusting you but we can talk, just not now, I'm late for school." The brown haired boy decided.

"Can I come with you? I think Mephisto won't pick me up until later."

"You want to go to a school full of exorcists?"

"Well, as long as you don't tell anyone that I'm a demon I should be fine, right?" Rin was pretty optimistic about it.

"You're going to follow me either way, aren't you?"

The Gehennian Prince nodded and followed the exorcist all the way to the cram school.

"So you're still learning to be an exorcist?" Rin asked after a while.

"No, I'm a teacher." Yukio wasn't sure what he should do about Rin.   
Should he tell Shirou about him?   
Should he just shoot him?   
He didn't seem to be a cruel, merciless demon. He was more like a curious child.

He had asked him a lot of questions about Assiah.   
Things like "How are there 4 seasons? Are cars working with magic? How can one king rule over almost 7 billion people? When Father is ruling Gehenna, does God rule Assiah? Have you ever met him?" Made Yukio realize that Rin had absolutely no idea about anything related to Assiah. After asking him if the demons haven't taught him about Assiah, he just answered, that Satan thought it would be a waste of time.   
When they finally reached cram school, Yukio was more than relieved since it would mean Rin would have to cut back with all those questions.

"I would be proud of you that you're a teacher if you wouldn't teach those people to kill me and my kind." Rin said smiling. Didn't he take anything seriously?

"Oh, by the way, Mephisto told me that there would be some kind of party because the New Year starts or something like that. I want to go there. Would you go with me?" Rin got excited thinking about the things his older brother had told him about something called firework.

"I actually planned staying at home at New Year's eve."

"Please, I don't want to spend the time with that old fart."

Yukio wasn't sure about this, but he decided that Rin couldn't make some shady plans if he was with him.

"Okay but don't try anything. I am keeping my eyes on you."

They stepped into a classroom where already five teenagers the same age as Rin and Yukio sat.

"Hey, Mr. Okumura, who is that guy?" A boy with a weird blond streak in his hair asked.   
"That's Rin, he will watch our class for today." He explained and showed Rin a seat. Rin was excited. There were so many humans, he could interact with.

While listening to Yukio's lesson, he learned that his students were called Kamiki-chan, Miwa-kun, Shima-kun and Suguro-kun. When Yukio started talking about hobgoblins of a certain size and how to approach them Rin interrupted him.

"But why would you just shoot at it? You don't know what it's doing here. Maybe it is just getting candy for Amaimon."

Shima laughed while the other students looked kinda shocked about Rin's almost friendly intentions with demons.

"Candy for the Earth King? Nice joke, dude." Shima commented.   
"But it's not." he muttered confused by his laughter.

"Rin, how long are you planning to stay here? Your presence isn't really helping in my lesson." Yukio intervened while crossing his arms. What did he even think when he brought Rin here? What did Mephisto think bringing this guy to Assiah? The demon wanted to disagree, but he saw that it wouldn't get him anywhere.   
"It's just so unfair to kill someone or something that didn't do you any harm.", he complained quietly. Yukio opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted.   
"Okumura-kun? How great to see that you took care of little Rin." Mephisto appeared in the middle of the room.   
"What is the headmaster doing here?" Konekomaru asked his friends.   
"Oh don't worry about me, just continue. I'm just picking up this little devil." The man in the white suit chuckled. "Devil. . . oh I'm so funny." He added quietly. Rin stood up, rolling his eyes again, not really wanting to leave.

"Okay." He sighed and followed his older brother outside. Yukio also followed them. "Mephisto-san, can I ask you why you let him alone with me?" He asked looking at Rin. "Having a demon in my class doesn't really help the other students."

"Oh come on, Okumura-kun, he wanted to get to know you. Would there be a better chance to do so?"

"Hey! Don't talk about me like I wasn't standing here." Rin exclaimed a bit indignantly.

"Just don't come to me when I'm in class. I really don't need distraction." Yukio complained looking at both demons. He still wasn't sure what he should tell his father. Or did Shirou already know about this? He would definitely talk with him about his demonic twin brother.

"We have to go now either way. Say goodbye, Rin-kun."

After a short "Goodbye" Yukio turned around, laying his hand on the door handle, when he felt Rin standing only a few inches behind him.

"What the hell are you doing?" The younger boy jumped in shock looking at Rin.

"Oh, I'm just trying to memorize your smell." Rin blushed in embarrassment. Since he first drew Kurikara, his senses were highly enhanced and since Satan broke the sword, he just felt the need to memorize all new smells, it was like his instincts kicked in when he got to know something new. Were these part of these strange habits, Mephisto had told him about?

Yukio was a bit weirded out by his twin brother and slowly went back to class without taking his eyes off of Rin.

"Well, that certainly was amusing, don't you think?" Mephisto broke the silence.  
"I think he doesn't like me much." Rin's smile faded.

"Humans usually carry a grudge against people who hurt their loved ones."

"But it was an accident. And they were attacking the demons that came with me to Assiah." The Gehennian Prince couldn't see how all this was his fault.

"At least he didn't tell everybody that you are here." Mephisto stated very optimistic.

* * *

After he finished his lesson, Yukio went straight to his old home, the monastery where Father Fujimoto still lived. "Yukio? What are you doing here? I thought you had work to do at the academy." The Paladin quickly let a indecent magazine slip under his armchair. "Sorry, I didn't plan to come back that early, but something happened." The boy sat down looking really serious. "Why? Are there some pretty girls in your class and you don't know how to talk to them? Well, it's not that hard when you jus-" Shirou started talking.

"Rin appeared at the Academy. Pheles brought him there." The teenager interrupted him.

The Paladin didn't believe what he had just heard.

"I don't know what they're planning. But it seemed like Rin really wants to spend time with me."

"Spend time with you?"

"Yes, he said something about wanting to get to know his little brother and he was asking me if I would want to spend New Year's Eve with him. I agreed, because when he is with me he can't harm anyone." Yukio told his foster father.

"But isn't he on Satan's side? He could try conquering Assiah."

"He said that he loved Assiah and that he would try to convince Satan to find a peaceful solution. I don't know, he didn't seem dangerous when he talked to me. And Pheles brought him here and he works with the Vatican. I have no idea what I should think about all this."

"Loving Assiah? Does that mean, he changed his loyalty? Maybe you should keep an eye on him. If you do it, he won't get suspicious. I can't believe, Mephisto brought him here."

"I don't know. He just said something about cake. It was a bit confusing."


	7. Chapter 6 - Anger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin learns more about living in Assiah. For example, that he shouldn't annoy Mephisto.

"Not again. I can't believe that little brat managed to steal one of my precious keys." Mephisto stood in Rin's empty room. The teenager snuck out every day since he had met Yukio 3 days ago. The Prince really loved being around humans. It wouldn't be that hard to find him if Mephisto knew what key Rin stole but everytime he finally discovered his whereabouts, he was at another spot than the day before. All the Demon King knew was that Rin was somewhere in True Cross Town. Certainly, Mephisto would have felt better if the Prince wouldn't have stolen some money too.

With a new pair of shades and a really cool new hat, Rin made his way through the streets of True Cross Town. He followed a sweet smell until he reached a little shop. All kinds of candy, baked goods, and sugary drinks were presented in a display.

"Amazing." Quickly, he grabbed the money in his pocket to see how much was left. "That should be enough, I guess." He stepped inside and looked around. Since he came to Assiah, he could comprehend Amaimon's sugar addiction. "Hey, I would li-" He started talking to the salesman but he interrupted him. "Not now, boy. Don't you see we have a problem here?" He grunted before yelling at a person in the back. "Did you find em' beast? How did it even come in here? I ain't know we even had raccoons in this town."

"I'm sorry, Boss. But it's just too fast." The voice of a young man sounded from a room behind.

Rin didn't know what a raccoon was since there were no normal animals in Gehenna but once he got a glimpse of it he knew that it wasn't an animal. A hobgoblin now jumped through the shop devastating it and stealing some candy.

"Maybe, I can help you." Rin offered while following the small, green demon with his eyes.

"If you catch that beast, I give you a discount on all things you're buyin'. It's been in here for days now and we just can't catch it."

"Alright!" Now the Young Prince had a real motivation. He would have helped the shopkeeper either way but he wasn't so stupid that he would reject such an offer.

He let out a sharp whistle and the hobgoblin stopped jumping around, looking at Rin.

"Keep it down, little friend. You're causing those humans a lot of trouble." Rin kneeled down, so he could talk to the demon. "Are you providing Amaimon with candy again?" The small goblin nodded in agreement. "Okay. Just take a bit and return home, okay? Don't just cause such a turmoil." Rin picked the demon up and put it down outside.

"How did you do that? Did you just talk to that raccoon?" The shopkeeper stuttered.

"Well, I just have a thing with raccoons." Rin smiled awkwardly.

"A promise is a promise. What can I get you, boy?"

A few minutes later, Rin walked out with two bags full with all sorts of cookies, cupcakes and sweets. He had spend all the money, he had stolen from his older brother.

"They really haven't taught you any manners, have they? A Prince doesn't just steal from his older brother and run away." Mephisto appeared behind him, wacking him at the back of his head with his umbrella. "Ow!" He let his bags fall down and held his head.

"You're becoming predictable. You're always near a candy shop. Picking up Amaimon's habits?" Mephisto joked, grabbing his younger brother from behind and dragging him back to the academy.

"That's it, you little sugar addict. Firstly, you will return my key. Secondly, I will find you a job, so you can pay me back that money you took from me and lastly, I won't get you any more cake, if you want some, make it yourself." Mephisto listed when they came back to the tower.

"What? That's so unfair! I don't know how to bake and I've also never worked in my life. I'm the Prince of Gehenna!" Normally, Rin would never play the "Prince of Gehenna"-card, but he didn't want to work and pay Mephisto the money back.

"Teenagers. . . I hope he doesn't stay that age forever. I can't handle a second Amaimon." Samael muttered to himself. "If you go through that door," A pink wooden door appeared in the wall. "You'll find a kitchen and everything you need to cook. See you tomorrow and get that temper of yours under control. You may be the Prince, but I am a King, Little Brother."

After Mephisto disappeared, Rin kicked a small trash can against the door. "Bastard" He muttered. It took him awhile, but in the end, Rin made his way to the kitchen. It wasn't really big. There was a fridge, a stove and a rather small table with just a single chair, everything in a sickening pink colour. "A little pink is okay, but Mephisto is overdoing it." Rin looked around. "I'm definitely not going cook anything." He determined stubbornly. But on the other hand, he really could use some cake after the frustration of being caught. "Well, it can't be that hard to cook something, can it?" He would at least try it. He took a glance into the fridge. "What do I even need?" There was so much stuff in there. Milk, chocolate and sugar, these were the ingredients Rin was sure about. But after mixing them together, he noticed that there was missing something. He added flour and some other ingredients. A brown dough was the final product of Rin's experiments. "Now, I have to bake it, I guess." He thought out loud and put it in the stove.

"Man, this is taking forever." Rin noticed impatiently only seconds after he put it in there.

He grinned as he got an idea that seemed brilliant in his mind. He focused on his cake and blue flames ignited inside the stove. "I'm a genius!" He snickered as he watched his flames baking the cake. A few minutes later, he took his creation out of the stove. "Well, it's a bit darker than I thought, but I guess that's okay."

He waited until it cooled down and greedily took a slice.

He took a large bite out of it and had to spit it out immediately.

It tasted absolutely disgusting. The black as coal dough, so Rin noticed now, was completely burned.

"This is harder than I thought."

Several cakes later, Rin gave up. He had gotten a lot better and his creations were at least edible, but they weren't what you would call tasty. He had been so concentrated that he didn't even notice that it was morning already.

* * *

Exactly at 7 o'clock, Mephisto walked into the room. "I see, you've been up all night. I hope your still ready for the job that I got you."

"You were serious about that?" Rin still did not feel like working. "Of course, you've costed me a lot of money. Also, as a King you will have to take responsibility. I heard that this is how human teenagers learn it. A job or a pet, and I'm definitely not going to buy a goldfish." The flamboyant man explained. "Now then, let's go!" He said enthusiastically. Rather bored, Rin followed him outside but was stopped before he could step through the door.

"Your tail." Mephisto pointed out. Rolling his eyes, Rin lifted his shirt and curled his tail around his body, hiding his tail. "You should really get used to that. How often do I have to tell you that this is your most vulnerable body part?" The Demon King lectured the boy. "Whatever." The teenager grumbled when they finally left.

The first thing Rin saw was a wooden cottage at the end of a stone path.   
"What is that?" He asked skeptically.   
"That's where you're going to work. Aren't you excited?" Mephisto grinned.   
"That's stupid. I don't get how this is going to help me become a King." The Prince complained.   
"Well, I don't care. Come with me." Mephisto walked towards the front door, Rin following him closely behind.   
"Good morning Mrs. Moriyama. It's great to see you. Thank you for giving my little brother a job." He greeted the woman behind the counter.   
"No problem. I need someone to help my daughter in the garden. She is too stubborn to admit that she really needs an aid." She waved it off.   
"You can go directly through that door. You will find my daughter in her garden." The mid aged woman instructed Rin.   
"Fine." He muttered in response and made his way to the door while glaring at Mephisto who said something about ignoring Rin's crappy behaviour.

When he stepped through the door, he found himself in a beautiful garden with loads of different herbs and flowers. A young, blond girl about Rin's age kneeled in a patch and planted some new flowers.   
"Umm. . . hello?" He shouted walking towards the blonde. She shrieked for a second an looked at him in shock.   
"Who are you? What are you doing in my garden?" She asked frightened.   
"Calm down. I'm supposed to work here." He explained shortly. He still tried to figure out why she was so afraid of him. Without attracting attention, he quickly checked if his tail or horns were visible. Fortunately, he noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

Rin was just standing in front of her in an awkward silence.

"I am Rin by the way." He said after a while.   
"My name is Shiemi." She introduced herself timidly.   
"You know, it's pretty rude not to stand up if you introduce yourself." Rin mentioned, crossing his arms.   
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I just can't stand up, because I'm sick." Shiemi apologized while blushing and looking at the ground. Once again there was this awkward silence. This would be a long day for Rin if Shiemi wouldn't talk to him.

It took her almost an hour until she finally told Rin how he could help her. Silently, the Prince carried some plant pots around the garden. While he worked, he took a look around the garden. He noticed a lot of small demons like Greenmen.   
"Hey Shiemi, did you know that you're getting a lot of help from these little guys?" He held up a little Greenman that was hanging on his finger.   
"Is that a demon? Why would they help me?" She asked looking at the small demon on Rin's index finger.   
"Why wouldn't they? The demons of Amaimon's kin love gardens like this one." He explained while putting the small demon down.   
"Amaimon? Who's that?" Shiemi wasn't studying at True Cross Academy, so she had never heard of the demon kings.   
"Oh he's just some demon." The Prince told her trying to keep his secret of being the son of Satan.

"Oh, I see. I thought all demons were bad, but these little ones seem to be really nice." The blonde watched curiously how Rin put the Greenman down.   
"Why does everyone think that demons are evil?" The raven haired teenager asked.   
"There are a lot of demons that harm people. My mother even thinks that a demon is the reason why I can't use my legs anymore." She explained, finally opening up a little.   
"Really? Can I see your legs? Maybe I can help you." Rin offered kindly. He saw that Shiemi was a really nice person and he didn't want her to suffer from this mysterious illness. At first, she hesitated but then she showed him her legs. It looked like there were roots growing inside of them.   
"It could be a dekalp." He thought out loud.   
"I will take care of it, okay?" He said to Shiemi giving her a confident smile.   
"Are you an exorcist?" She asked confused.   
"Well, no. Not really, but I can handle this."

"What do you think you're doing?" A omniscient voice could suddenly be heard in the garden.

"Are you the dekalp that is possessing Shiemi?" The Prince stayed calm, looking where the voice came from. Dekalps weren't strong demons and as soon as he knew that Rin was Satan's son he would let Shiemi go. While most demons in Gehenna attended Rin's coronation, not all that resided in Assiah arrived to see the Prince become a demon. It would make sense as to why this Dekalps doesn't recognize him despite his powerful aura.

"Who are you talking to, Rin?" He had forgotten that Shiemi couldn't hear demons the way he could.

"Get out of here!" The Dekalp roared and vines started growing around the blond girl.

"What is happening? Rin!" She shouted before going unconscious.

"Shiemi! Damn it. Hey! Do you even know who you're talking to?" The Prince reprimanded.

The Dekalp finally showed itself. It was growing largely behind Shiemi, levitating. Small horns of blue fire ignited on Rin's head, he was clenching his fists in anger. "Let her go, you bastard!"

Now, the demon seemed to recognize Rin. Stricken with fear, the Dekalp flinched and loosening the grip around Shiemi.

"My Prince, I'm sorry. Please forgive me my rudeness. I didn't recognize you."

"Why would you hurt this girl? She has done nothing wrong!"

"She was about to leave the garden. I couldn't let her do that!" The demon defended itself.

"And how did you get the idea that you have the right to keep her here? Demons like you are the reason why so many humans are afraid of us. She did something you don't like and you just harm her. You used her life force to keep the garden alive, didn't you? That's what the roots were for, right?" Rin was certainly not amused by this demon's behaviour.

"Every demon does that!" The Dekalp got angry and more confidant. "Don't you dare judge my methods! I don't care who you are if you try to kick me out of my garde-" He couldn't finish his sentence. Rin impaled a dagger into his head, causing him to fall lifeless.

It took Rin a while to calm down. He didn't mean to kill him but something just snapped inside of him.  
For a moment, he just stood there in shock. His hands were shaking. "What have I done?" He muttered to himself.  
The sight of Shiemi's unconscious body brought him back to reality.

"Shiemi!" He ran towards her.

The roots on her legs disappeared and the young Demon Prince picked the girl up carrying her inside.

Little did Rin know there was a flamboyant figure floating in the air overlooking his actions as we went about his day. "Interesting. Looks like a more violent nature is showing in my little brother. He truly his father's son. He even attacks other demons. Maybe I should do something about it. . . or I'll just lay back and watch." Mephisto concluded, watching over Rin.


	8. Chapter 7 - Fireworks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just some bonding.  
Yukio and Rin learn a lot more about each other.

Today was the day, Rin would finally see his twin brother again.

Even though he had lost his temper after he had returned to his room with Mephisto, he didn't want to keep him away from Yukio.

Unfortunately, the mood swings of a young demon were unpredictable and really annoying in Mephisto's opinion; the King of Time didn't want any more burn holes in the wall.

It was almost 8 o'clock and the sun had gone down when Mephisto dropped Rin off at Yukio's dorm.

"Well, see you tomorrow. Don't cause any trouble or Yukio will probably shoot you." He said casually and disappeared again.

The Prince entered the dorm, passing a few students of True Cross Academy. As he raised his hand to knock, the door already opened.

A tall, blond guy looked down at the young demon.

"Who are you?" He demanded.

"I'm Rin. I was looking for Yukio. Where is he? He should be here." The Prince tried to look past the other boy.

"He should be back any minute. Just wait in here." The blonde boy let him in the room and left soon after.

It was a rather small room with two beds and desks. Everything was clean and tidy, but Yukio's smell was definitely the strongest in here. Rin sat down on one of the beds and waited for his younger brother.

About 10 minutes later, Yukio entered the room and put down his bag when he noticed Rin.

"Oh right, you wanted to spend New Year's Eve with me. I almost forgot! Even though I still don't quite get why." Yukio muttered to himself.

He didn't want to be with his demonic twin, but he had no choice. There was a chance that someone would get hurt if he rejected Rin.

"I already told you that I want to learn more about Assiah and not destroy it. Why is that so hard to believe?" It made the Prince a bit sad that Yukio mistrusted him that much.

"You're a demon. Why would you want to learn about Assiah? Aren't you the heir of Gehenna?"

"My mother was human and she lived here. My father, who is also your father you dumbass, wants to unite Assiah and Gehenna, he just doesn't know how." Rin defended himself clenching his fists.

Realizing that Rin got angry, Yukio made a step back.

"Okay, okay, I believe you." He lied straight through his teeth. He didn't need the dorm to burn in blue flames and a raging demon slaughtering the other students.

Rin immediately brightened and gave his younger brother a large smile.

"Great! What are we doing?" He asked excited.

Yukio, who was a bit confused by the sudden change of atmosphere, took a while to think about it.

He couldn't just go to one of the parties which he had been invited to especially when he had a potentially dangerous demon with him.

"Well, we can watch the fireworks from here, I guess. My roommate won't be here since he is going to a party." Yukio instantly regretted what he said.

"A party? Why aren't we going there? Sounds like fun!" Rin shouted enthusiastically.

"We are not invited. We can't just show up there." Yukio lied quickly hoping that Rin would believe him and let it go.

"Are you kidding me? I'm a Prince and you are, well technically, you're a Prince too since you're my brother. We can show up wherever we want! Come on, Yukio, it will be fun!" He tried to convince his younger brother.

"Forget it. I can't bring you to a party. You are a demon!"

Rin groaned annoyed, "I'm not here to harm anyone, I already told you! I will behave as human as possible, okay?"

"Listen, I-" Yukio started when he suddenly got an idea, "Okay, I'll take you to the party but only under one condition."

"What condition? Come on, I'll do anything!"

Yukio grabbed something from one of the many drawers at his desk and held up a small, golden ring.

"You have to agree to wear this. That's my condition." He stated.

"Is that some kind of human jewelry? It's a bit weird, but okay." Rin smiled friendly.

He didn't really care what that thing was and wanted to go outside.

The Prince held out his hand to grab the ring, but Yukio didn't give it to him.

He wouldn't have thought that his brother would agree to wear a sealing charm but then he realized that Rin probably didn't even know that it was one.

"You have to wear it on your tail." These words confused Rin for a moment, but he did as Yukio said and let his tail slip out of his shirt.

"I don't really get why, but if you take me to the party, I don't have a problem with that."

Yukio gave him the ring and Rin put it on the tip of his tail. After that he hid it again under his shirt.

"Can we go now?"

"Alright" Yukio still wasn't sure about this but he took the risk.

"Yukio-kun! It's great you made it!" A teenage girl came running towards the twins when they arrived at the party.

"Who's your friend? I've never seen him in school before." Another girl asked smiling.

Before Yukio had the chance to answer, Rin started talking.

"I'm his twin brother Rin. I was out of town for a while, but now I'm here to visit my siblings!"

"I didn't know you had siblings, Yukio-kun. He's almost as cute as you are." The second girl giggled.

"My name is Rika and that's Asami, we're in Yukio-kun's class." A girl with bright red hair introduced herself and her friend.

"Nice to meet you. I didn't know my brother had a girlfriend." The demon smiled.

That made the two girls giggle even more.

"What? None of them are. What are you talking about?" Yukio was slightly embarrassed and dragged his twin away from the girls.

"God, I hate parties" He muttered like it was the worst thing on earth.

"Why? You seem to be popular with the girls. You should be nicer to them. You could have fun here." Rin was looking around watching teens dancing, talking and having fun.

"I bet they are really disappointed that we just vanished. Let's go back. They seem to be nice and they're really pretty"

Yukio couldn't believe what he just heard.

"Okay listen. It's okay that you're here at the party but you can't come near anyone here." He said in a serious tone.

"What do you mean by that?" Rin was slightly confused. He just wanted to make some friends.

"I swore to protect humans from demons like you. You're not here to make friends. I'm okay with you coming here but there will be no contact between you and any human but me. Do you understand?"

His words hurt the Young Prince and a silent growl escaped his throat.

Rin turned around and wanted to walk away, so he could calm himself down, when he ran into a guy. He was way taller than the demon and at least three years older.

"Hey! Watch your step!" The other teenager snapped at at him.

Rin just wanted to walk away, but the taller one grabbed him by his shoulder.

"Hey! Don't you want to apologize?"

Yukio made a step towards them and opened his mouth to intervene when Rin did something he hadn't expected.

The Prince took a deep breath and looked up to the guy who grabbed him.

"I'm sorry. Can you let me go now?"

"You're lucky that I'm in a good mood." The tall boy grunted and walked away.

Rin glanced at Yukio and left the party.

"Rin! Wait!" Yukio went after his older brother.

The demon stopped on top of a small, grassy hill and turned around.

"Why can't you give me a chance? Do you know how hard I'm trying? I promised you not to hurt anyone." He shouted.

There was no anger in his voice, just sadness.

"You have to understand that I, as an exorcist, can't just become best friends with the son of Satan!" Yukio defended himself.

"You know, you're always saying that but you seem to forget that he's your father too! I didn't choose to be born with the blue flames. But now this is the responsibility I have to bear. I am loyal to my father and so are you. What is wrong with that?"

"What's wrong with that? My father is protecting people yours is killing them."

"That's bullshit and you know that. Father hasn't been in Assiah in the last 16 years but you and the other exorcists never stopped murdering demons. We just want to live here. I know that there are some demons hurting people, but so are you! Humans kill fellow humans everyday but they just get imprisoned instead of getting killed." Rin was shaking. His brother's ignorance made him furious.

"I just wanted to be your brother. I didn't harm anyone on purpose. I even saved someone from a rather mean demon. I tried to learn how humans live. I ran away so often from Mephisto, just so I could go to a park or a shopping mall and learn about humans and then there's you. At first, I thought you would give me a chance but you don't! If you don't trust me why don't you trust Mephisto? He is an exorcist. Why would he bring someone to Assiah who would try to destroy the True Cross Order?"

Yukio didn't know what he could say.

He felt kinda sorry for his twin brother, but there was also this little voice inside of him that reminded him that Rin was a demon and he was an exorcist.

But the young demon was right about what he said about Mephisto.

The strange man tended to leave out some important facts but he wouldn't try to destroy the Vatican.

Yukio sighed.

Then he just silently walked up to his older brother and hugged him.

The young demon was surprised by the sudden embrace and just stood there.

"I'm sorry. It is just odd for me. I didn't know that, well, I didn't know about those things you said. It's hard for me but I will try to trust you a little more, okay?" He mumbled.

Rin seemed to visibly calm down.

"And you mean that?" He wanted to reassure himself.

"I promise."

A few minutes later, the twins were sitting next to each other on the ground.

"What did you mean when you said that you saved someone?" Yukio said after a while.

The Prince thought about it and decided that it would be far too humiliating for him to admit that he had a job.

He told him how he helped Shiemi while leaving out that he lost control and killed the small demon. He just wasn't ready to talk about what he had done yet. As long as Rin didn't have to talk about it, it would be like it never happened and the guilt wouldn't overwhelm him.

"Wait, that girl you're describing, her name isn't Shiemi Moriyama by chance, is it?" Yukio's question interrupted Rin's thoughts.

"Yes, it is. How do you know her?"

"She's a friend of mine. I met her when I was a child. I can't believe that you cured her. Thank you." Yukio scratched his head. He was embarrassed that he couldn't have helped Shiemi.

"No problem, I guess. She is really nice, so it wasn't fair that the Dekalp was attacking her but after I talked to it, it understood and let her go." Rin smiled and leaned back.

Yukio looked at his watch. "It's almost time." He stated.

"Time for what?" Rin was confused. He heard people counting down in far distance.

"What's going on?"

"It's almost New Year! 3… 2… 1…"

The voices that had just counted down suddenly started shouting and wishing a happy new year.

When the first rocket exploded in the sky, Rin was completely shocked.

Yukio started laughing which wasn't that common.

"Calm down. It's just fireworks."

"Fireworks?"

"Just look up," He pointed up where the next firework rocket blasted.

While covering his ears, Rin did as his brother said.

His eyes became bigger and bigger when he saw all the colorful and sparkling lights.

"Amazing! Are you sure that humans don't use magic?"

"Pretty sure. It's actually a chemical reaction." Yukio started to explain, but Rin interrupted him.

"I have no idea what that means. Chemical?"

"So you don't have something like this in Gehenna?"

Rin just shook his head.

"Would you like me to tell you about home, I mean Gehenna?" He got a bit excited when he thought about the demon realm.

"Well, I guess it would be really interesting if I heard something about it. No human has ever been to Gehenna so there are just rumors about it."

The Prince looked up in the sky when he started thinking about his home.

"Where should I start? Gehenna is split up in 9 domains. Father's is the biggest and in the central. The other 8 belong to my brothers."

"You mean the 8 demon kings, right?"

"Yes, at the moment two domains are abandoned because Lucifer and Samael are here in Assiah. I guess, they'll become mine when I return.

Anyway, as the heir of the throne, I had to study a lot after my flames showed themselves for the first time. I often ran away from my babysitter Cysat, but I never made it out of the castle." He laughed when he thought about his escape attempts.

The whole night, Rin told his brother about his childhood, his other demonic brothers, Egyn's attempts to drown the Prince after he pulled another prank on him.

Even though most of them were happy memories, a small tear appeared in the corner of the demon's eye. He loved being in Assiah, but he also missed his home.

When the sun rose, Yukio stood up.

"Thank you for telling me all this. I guess, you're not as dangerous as everyone thinks. But I will have to keep an eye on you, okay? I hope you understand that. I should really go now." His last words were almost completely consumed by a yawn.

* * *

"So, did you have fun?" Mephisto asked when Rin returned.

"Come on, I know that you were watching us. Your smell was constantly following us." The young demon crossed his arms.

"You didn't think I would leave you alone, did you? If something happened to you before I could even start your training, Father probably would have killed me, well, he could have tried, but he can't stay in Assiah for more than 10 seconds."

"Wait, what do you mean by training?" It was the first time he had heard something about that.

"Of course, Dummerchen [dummy]! That's why you're here in the first place. Someone has to take care of Luci's and my domain back in Gehenna." Mephisto laughed it off.

"And what could you possibly teach me? Watching those weird anime shows?" Rin didn't take his older brother seriously. How could he? He was always so flamboyant and immature.  
But now King of Time's smile disappeared.

"You don't believe I can teach you something? Oh please, I'm over 1000 years old and you are, oh right, you're 16. I'm the second oldest son of Satan and the King of Time. Maybe you know how to fight, but what do you know about being a King?"

Rin looked at his older brother and got the feeling that his time in Assiah wouldn't be as relaxed as before.


	9. Chapter 8 - Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin finally learns something from Mephisto.

"That is your amazing training method?" Rin asked skeptically, looking at a chess board in front of him. "It's one part of it. Are you disappointed because I won't just let you fight anything? Being an excellent tactician is even more important for a King than being the strongest." Mephisto explained to him while placing the chess pieces.

"If you say so," Rin frowned. "But I don't even know the rules!" The Prince whined. staring intently at the chess pieces expertly placed in front of him.

"That's why I'll explain them to you, and you better listen to me because I'm not going to tell you this twice."

"You've got 8 pawns," The King of Time started explaining, pointing at the small figures in the front row, "and these are your 2 knights, 2 bishops, and 2 rooks," He explained further.

"What about the two in the middle?" Rin asked, yawning. He had never liked theoretical lessons.

"That's the Queen and that's the most important piece in the game, the King. When your King is unable to make a move you lost."

After another few explanations, the game started. At first, Rin didn't pay attention and he lost the first match.  
"How long do we have to do this? I don't think that I'm going to learn something from that." Rin asked after the third match, stretching himself and taking a more comfortable sitting position.  
"Quit complaining. We play chess until you understand what I want to teach you." Mephisto answered.  
A few hours later, the sun was rising and Rin finally started caring about the game. Mostly because he wanted this training to end. He had never been that bored in his life.

"Wait a second. When I put my horse," Rin began.

"It's called a knight but go on," Mephisto interrupted him, interested in the Prince's next move.

"Okay okay. When I put my knight here," He continued his train of thought, "I got you! Checkmate!"

Proudly, he crossed his arms, leaning back. Mephisto started to laugh.

"You will have to learn so much, Rin" The King of Time picked up his King chess piece and just put it somewhere else. After that, he placed his other pieces around Rin's King.

"Checkmate, little brother."

"What are you doing? That's against the rules. You can't just put everything where you want!" Rin complained outraged.

"My first advice," Mephisto held up a finger, "A King doesn't follow the rules, he makes his own."

"Are you kidding me? You just didn't want to lose!"

"In a real battle, nobody follows the rules." Mephisto lectured his younger brother.

"I guess that's right but this is not a real battle. You're just a cheater that didn't want to lose" Rin growled.

"Oh please, do you think you were so close to winning because you're such a good chess player? I let you come this far so I could teach you a lesson." Mephisto laughed.

"I knew your training would be stupid. I want to fight! That's a far better training!" The Prince shouted, allowing his features become more demonic as if preparing for battle

The King of Time shook his head. He didn't understand how Rin could be that stubborn. When he first met the Prince, he had been polite, calm, and not as annoying as he was now. Mephisto assumed that the change had something to do with the fact that he left Gehenna. He thought about it for a second and resolved to prove his assumption.

"Fine, I'll find you a sparring partner, but you would draw too much attention to yourself in Assiah. If you want to train so bad we have to go back to Gehenna." The King of Time suggested.

"Finally, you're saying something reasonable! Let's go and I can show you that I don't need these stupid chess lessons!"

Only a few minutes later, Rin and Mephisto stepped out of the Gehenna Gate, standing in the middle of the courtyard of Satan's Castle.

"Okay, where is Amaimon?" The Prince was ready to leave Mephisto, searching the Earth King to get his revenge.

"You're not just wandering around the castle without greeting Father first, aren't you?" Mephisto stopped his younger brother.

"What? No, of course not." Rin tried to cover up his oblivion. Now, he was visibly nervous about seeing Satan again because he hadn't improved much since they had last seen each other.

Slowly, he followed Mephisto to the throne room, hesitating before entering.

"You've returned sooner than I had expected, Samael. Did you give up yet?" Satan greeted his second born son, not acknowledging Rin's presence.

"On the contrary, Father." Mephisto bowed slightly, "Coming back is part of the training."

Rin stood next to King Samuel, not daring to say a word in front of his father, the almighty Satan.

"A result of this training seems to be that my heir is forgetting his manners." Satan glared at the Prince, sending a chill down his spine.

Instantly, Rin noticed his mistake and kneeled down.

"I'm sorry, Father. I didn't mean to disrespect you." He apologized immediately. The sudden change of attitude was actually surprising for the King of Time.

"I certainly hope so. What are you teaching him, Samael? Is it important enough to apologize for this lack of formalities?" Satan asked with a mixture of disappointment and anger.

The King of Time smiled at his father, "I can't explain it. He is usually so well behaved. Isn't that right, Rin?"

Normally, he would have snapped back at him but he didn't dare to insult Mephisto in front of Satan.

The Prince just stared at the floor. He didn't understand how Mephisto could talk so blithely to Satan. If Rin talked to his father like that it would be taken as a sign of disrespect.

"So, what exactly are you teaching him, Samael?" The Demonic God broached the subject again.

"Today, I showed him a few battle tactics," Mephisto explained. Rin had to admit that it sounded better than just saying that they played chess.

"Today? It has been weeks since you left Gehenna. What did you do in that time?" Satan was skeptical.

"Well, we didn't do nothing. I thought that it would be good if he learned something about diplomacy" The King of Time lied, covering up that they started Rin's training only a few hours ago.

"Diplomacy?" Satan obviously didn't believe his son but he let it slide for now, "Is that true, Rin?"

The Prince didn't know what to do. Should he tell the truth, admitting that he didn't have training in a while? Maybe he would be assigned to one another one of his brothers. Even though Rin was often annoyed by Mephisto, he was actually grateful that he could stay in Assiah. He never lied to his father but he wanted to stay in the human world.

"Yes, it's true." Rin answered quickly.

Satan just nodded, riveting again on Mephisto, "Why did you come back?"

"Rin asked for combat training. In Assiah, the blue flames would attract too much attention. I thought that Amaimon or Beelzebub would be great opponents since they are the youngest Baal." While speaking, Mephisto made his way towards the exit but was stopped by Satan.

"You're suggesting a sparring between Rin and one of the Baal. It has been a while since I was entertained by something like that. I'm going to watch so I can see what my heir has learned in his time in Assiah." The Demonic God rose from his throne.

"You're going to watch?" Rin was surprised. His father had never been present in Rin's training sessions. He was nervous but he also wanted to use this chance to prove himself.

"Do you have a problem with that?" Satan growled.

"No, of course not." The Prince said apologizing, looking up to the 7-foot tall ruler of Gehenna.

Satan nodded shortly before heading for the courtyard.

"It would be a shame if you couldn't defeat your opponent while Father is watching you. You should challenge Beelzebub. Unlike Amaimon, the King of Insects has never been much of a fighter. This is a great opportunity to give you my second advice," Mephisto started as soon as Satan had left the room, holding up two fingers, "Choose your opponent wisely. Don't pick an unnecessary hard fight if you have an alternative."

"Forget it. I want to fight Amaimon!" Rin insisted, clenching his fists.

The King of Time sighed, "I knew you would say that. Fine, fight Amaimon and risk to lose in front of Father. I'll wait outside while you're looking for Amaimon."

"Wait! How am I supposed to find him?" The Prince asked quickly before Mephisto was leaving him alone.

"You've been living here for 16 years and you don't know where you can find one of your brothers? Okay okay, I'm going to bring him here." Mephisto shook his head and disappeared with a quiet Poof.

A little later, Rin stood next to his father in awkward silence, waiting for Mephisto to return with Amaimon. The Prince thought back to the time when he told Yukio that he could change Satan's mind about conquering the human realm. He hesitated but then he decided that it would be worth a try.

"Father? I wa-" Rin started but the Demon God interrupted him.

"They're back. I hope you know that I expect you to win." Satan stated before sitting down on a small throne a few servants had just brought to him. A second later, Mephisto reappeared with Amaimon next to him.

"Yes, Father." Rin said, disappointed that he wouldn't listen to him.

"So you want to train with me, little brother?" Amaimon stepped in. His look was not quite as deadpanned as usual and he had something mocking about him.

The Prince decided to leave his disappointment behind and focus on his opponent.

"Why are you asking? Scared to lose?" Rin grinned, gaining a bit courage before the fight.

Both of them went to the middle of the courtyard, facing each other directly.

"We both know what happened last time we played." Amaimon said, cracking his fingers.

Rin didn't reply to his older brother and just reached out for his dagger.

"You better put that dagger back in your belt. You're not allowed to use any weapons and this fight goes until one of you passes out or forfeits." Mephisto intervened, sitting down on his own white and pink armchair.

Even though it put Rin at a disadvantage, he sheathed his dagger. The Prince usually fought with a weapon while Amaimon almost never used one.

With a simple hand sign, Satan gave his sons the permission to start.

Before Rin could do anything, Amaimon had already pinned him down to the ground.

"That was boring. At least try to fight back." The King of Earth yawned, thinking Rin would give up.

Rin quickly glanced over at his father who looked more than disappointed over his fast defeat.

"It's not over yet, Amaimon!" The Prince shouted, creating an explosion of blue flames.

The sudden burst of flames even reached the two spectators. Mephisto just opened his umbrella to protect himself. He looked at Satan who, to Mephisto's surprise, had to shield himself too with his own flames.

Rin managed to stand up after Amaimon had to dodge the blue fire. He knew that he somehow had to overcome the difference in age and experience between himself and his older brother but he needed more time to figure out how.

After exchanging some punches, the Prince had to focus on dodging Amaimon's attacks more than striking himself. Unfortunately, he started to get tired and had to take a hard punch to his stomach. Amaimon's claws didn't really help the situation, forcing Rin to retreat.

While applying pressure to his would, he realized he could only defeat Amaimon in one way.

Once again, the King of Earth brought Rin down, holding him with one of his knees on the ground.

"Just give up. It's getting rather sad than amusing." Amaimon noted.

"If I should lose this fight, it won't be because I surrender!" Rin growled, trying to provoke his older brother.

"Well, then I guess I have to let my baby brother take a little nap." The King of Earth was about to close in for the final blow, neglecting to watch Rin carefully.

Suddenly, a sharp pain emerged right above the knee he was holding Rin down with.

The Prince had rammed his dagger into the Earth King's leg, now pulling it out, using Amaimon's confusion to pin him down. He placed the blade on Amaimon's throat.

"Okay, okay, I give up." Amaimon forfeited the battle.

Rin let him go and even helped his brother to come back to his feet.

"So, you've won by cheating." Satan stated.

Rin took a deep breath before telling his father what Mephisto had taught him.

"A King doesn't follow the rules, he makes his own."

Satan closed his eyes, probably thinking about something. Then he just rose from his throne and made his way back inside his castle.

Rin's mood dropped. Was his father disappointed? Did he do something wrong? Wasn't he supposed to break the rules after all?

"Why are you looking so sad? You won! It was a bit unfair but you won!" Amaimon didn't understand at all what was going on.

The Prince opened his mouth to answer when Mephisto walked up to them.

"Normally, I would ignore dumb comments from Amaimon-"

"Hey!"

"- but he is right this time. There is no reason to be depressed." The King of Time stated.

"But Father didn't say anything. I disappointed him. Only because I followed that stupid advice of yours." Rin was frustrated.

"You did anything but disappoint him. I usually wouldn't tell you that but I guess I have to prove that my advice isn't stupid. Let me just say one thing. I have never seen Father having to protect himself from an attack until he was confronted with your flames. Herzlichen Glückwunsch [Congratulations]! You are the first demon that is probably able to hurt Satan himself." Mephisto explained.

"But why didn't he say anything?" The Prince wasn't really believing what the King of Time told him.

"Father would never admit something like that. He is as stubborn as you are." Mephisto's words lightened up Rin's mood.

"We should return to Assiah now. I think you've trained enough for today." He determined, opening the portal back to the human realm.

"Wait! Last time, you promised to bring me some candy." Amaimon stopped them, holding out a hand.

"Right. I almost forgot. Wait a second." Mephisto disappeared in the portal for a second before he returned with two bags full of candy.

"What? No! That's mine. I bought that!" Rin complained, recognizing the bags from his last visit in True Cross Town.

"You bought it with my money so it technically belongs to me." The King of Time handed the candy to Amaimon.

Rin opened his mouth but didn't know how he could argue with that. Mumbling something about Mephisto being a jerk, the Prince stepped through the portal, leaving his brothers alone.

"You did actually let him win. I didn't know candy was that important to you." Mephisto looked at the King of Earth who was already eating his sweets.

"I didn't let him win. I would never lose on purpose to Rin. That would be lame." Amaimon simply stated, putting a bonbon in his mouth.

"I guess I underestimate our sweet baby brother. See you soon." With a small wave of his hand, Mephisto followed the Prince through the portal, closing it behind himself.


	10. Chapter 9 - Making Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin meets the exwires outside of class.  
Maybe they can become friends?  
He also gains an unexpected ally.

"Do you really think Father is proud of me?" Rin asked few minutes after returning to Assiah; he was sitting on his bed looking at Mephisto.

"You are annoying me with that question. How often do I have to tell you? I'm starting to think that you just want to hear it to satisfy your ego." The King of Time replied, walking towards the door.

"Wait! Where are you going?" The Prince sprung up from his bed.

"I have some paperwork to do." Mephisto answered, opening the door which led to his office.

"Sounds boring. Can I go out? I don't want to spend the rest of the day here." Rin had a confidant smile on his face.

Mephisto looked at him, not saying anything.

"What? Come on, I can take care of myself. I mean, I won't run around screaming '_Hey guys! I'm the son of Satan! Please come and try to kill me!'_" Rin was relieved when Mephisto nodded in agreement.

"Fine. You will probably just run away again if I don't let you go."

"Awesome! See you later then!" The Prince quickly ran past him and making his escape out of Mephisto's confinement.

"Teenagers." Mephisto shook his head, sitting down at his desk and going over some of his paperwork.

"Where is the exit of this place?" Rin thought out loud, running through True Cross Academy.

He had never thought about how big the school building was. The only thing he knew was that the Academy wasn't as gigantic as Satan's Castle.

"Hey! Wait a second!" A voice behind him called.

Rin turned around, noticing a group of teenagers he had seen somewhere before.

"Are you talking to me?" The Prince tried to reassure himself.

"Rin-kun? Is that you?" A shy female voice asked, coming from behind the boys that stood in the front.

"Shiemi! Hey. It's been a while. Sorry for showing up so rarely. What are you doing here?" Rin smiled when he recognized the small blonde girl.

"You know this guy, Shiemi? He was a guest in Mr. Okumura's class." A boy with a blonde streak in his hair said, triggering Rin's memories. These were the exorcists in training Yukio was teaching.

"I help her in her garden sometimes. Are you friends?" Rin was curious. He had never had a real friend, only servants and brothers, that didn't really count.

"We're just in the same class." A purple haired girl with weirdly small eyebrows answered.

"I wondered the whole time why you were watching our lesson. It's a bit weird since we never had guests in class." The boy with the blonde streak, Rin remembered that his name was Ryuji, asked.

"I was just interested what they are teaching you. Mephisto is my br-" Rin quickly thought about it. He knew that they were aware of Mephisto being a demon but he wasn't sure if they knew that he was a Demon King. If they knew that Mephisto was a son of Satan they would find out that Rin was too.

"He's my guardian while I'm here." He explained to them, hoping that they would believe him.

"So you don't want to become an exorcist?" Ryuji asked.

"Hell no. I'm not suicidal!" Rin laughed shortly, imagining himself becoming an exorcist. The idea of the son of Satan, the heir to Gehenna's throne, the wielder of blue flames fighting demons was too ridiculous.

"I'm Rin by the way. You're Suguro, right?" The Prince smiled warmly.

"It's Bon. These are Shima, Konekomaru and Kamiki, and you already know Moriyama." Ryuji introduced himself and his classmates.

"I can introduce myself." Kamiki snarled, walking past Rin and leaving them alone.

"Ignore her. She's always like that." Shima said apologizing.

"We were just heading out to eat something together because we just passed our exwire exams. Want to join us?" The pink haired boy invited Rin.

"Only if you have time of course. We don't want to force you to spend time with us." Shiemi blushed slightly in embarrassment.

"No, I would really like to come with you if you don't mind. I can't stand spending the whole day alone or with Mephisto." Rin accepted the offer.

"Okay. Who wants pizza?" Shima asked the group.

A little later, they all sat in a small Italian restaurant.

"You're not going to school at True Cross Academy, right?" Ryuji asked Rin. All of the exwires clearly wanted to get to know the Prince.

"No, Mephisto is teaching me everything I need to know." Rin answered, enjoying the company of his peers.

"Isn't it a bit scary to live with Sir Pheles? He seems to be an odd man and it's not a secret that he is a demon." Konekomaru whispered the last part as if he had said something forbidden.

"What is it with everyone and this weird fear of demons?" Rin decided to finally ask the question that had interested him since he came to Assiah the first time.

"You find it weird that humans fear those monsters? You clearly don't know what you're talking about. You probably didn't even receive a mashou or you would think different about it." The question seemed to anger Ryuji.

"Calm down, Bon. He probably didn't mean it like that." Konekomaru laid his hand on Bon's shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know that it's such a delicate subject." Rin apologized, recognizing that he shouldn't mention demons again if he wanted to make friends.

An awkward silence emerged. After a few minutes, Shima broke the quiet.

"How do you know Moriyama?" The pink haired boy asked.

"Oh, I help her out in her garden. It's nothing special." Rin answered, smiling at Shiemi.

"You've done more than that. Rin helped me when I was possessed by a demon." The blonde insisted, blushing when he smiled at her.

"No way. Really? You fought off a demon by yourself even though you're not an exorcist?" Konekomaru was amazed, imagining a heroic fight against a monster.

"It's really not that big of a deal. It was just a Dekalp. And I didn't really fight against it. I- I don't want to talk about it." The Prince mumbled, looking at his hands and hoping that the others wouldn't notice his shame. How could they be so amazed, thinking he fought and killed a demon? Rin still felt horrible about it.

"A Dekalp, huh? You do seem to know a lot about demons, but you said that you aren't an exorcist." Ryuji seemed to be very suspicious of Rin.

"Mephisto is my guardian and an exorcist. He talks a lot about demons and his job. That's why I know one or two things." The Prince felt bad about lying to the people he wanted to befriend but he had no choice.

"That really makes sense, Bon. It's pretty rude to interrogate him like that. We've just met him." Shima intervened, trying to calm his best friend down.

Ryuji just scowled at the pink haired monk and stopped questioning Rin.

"You seem to be very close friends." The Prince stated, hiding his jealousy. He never had a true friend, just servants.

"We grew up together." Konekomaru quickly explained, making some space for a waiter to put down their pizza.

"That's amazing. So you're like brothers? I wished my brothers would be closer to my age." Rin said, looking a bit sceptical at the pizza. Cautiously, he took a slice and tasted it.

"You have siblings? You've never told me about that." Shiemi asked, wanting to get to know him a little better. Of course, they talked when Rin helped her in her garden, but he usually avoided talking about his family.

"Oh, umm, yeah. I've got a few brothers. I didn't think it would be interesting." The Prince smiled apologizing.

"Wow, that answer is more than vague." Bon commented.

Slowly, Rin became annoyed by the former monk's attitude towards him.

"What is your problem? Since I've met you you're acting like a total dick." Rin really had to focus to keep himself from growling at the pompous prick.

"I just don't think that Honorary Knight Sir Mephisto Pheles has just some guy who is not even an exorcist as a ward. You've got to be hiding something. I mean, come on guys, you don't think that he is so kind hearted that he voluntarily takes care of anyone, do you?" Ryuji stood up, scowling at the Demon Prince.

The exwires were staring at Rin, waiting for a response.

"He kind of has a point." Konekomaru said slowly.

At this moment, it was really hard for Rin to control his temper. But when he opened his mouth to say something he was interrupted.

"Why are you all so mean? Rin did nothing wrong!" Shiemi suddenly cried, shocking the exwires and the Demon Prince. They had never seen Shiemi, who was usually so quiet and timid, raise her voice like that.

Rin was so baffled that he completely forgot about his anger towards Ryuji.

"But Moriyama, aren't you at least a bit curious about him?" Shima asked, still being a bit shocked by her outburst.

"Of course I am, but I don't want to corner him like that. He is going to tell me about him when he wants to. And if he doesn't want to that's fine with me. We're friends after all." Shiemi defended the demon.

"Friends?" Rin quietly thought out loud. Were they really friends? Her words touched Rin who wouldn't have thought that Shiemi thought of him like that. All he knew at this moment was that he was really happy.

Shiemi let out a little yelp when Rin suddenly hugged her.

"Rin? What are you doing?" She asked silently.

"I just want to say thank you." He muttered with a smile on his face before letting her go.

"I guess, I should go now. I don't want to raise the tension any more." Rin glanced at the other exwires, "Bye!"

After he was gone, Shima looked at Shiemi, "But you have to admit that he is a bit weird."

* * *

"Hey Mephisto! I'm back!" Rin just entered his older brother's office without hesitation and without knocking.

"You certainly are in a good mood. But could you please knock at least next time." Mephisto kneaded his temples as he looked up from his paperwork.

"Looks like you aren't. Come on, stop complaining. You didn't have to become the headmaster of a school." The Prince smiled.

"Just go to your room before I hurt you." The King of Time couldn't use an annoying teenager disturbing his work. He really hated paperwork.

"Alright, alright." Rin went to his room in the back of Mephisto's office.

"And please change clothes. We're getting a visitor later." Mephisto turned his chair to face his younger brother.

"Why can't I stay like that? I like these clothes. And who's visiting?" Rin asked before entering his room.

"Of course you like these clothes but they are so unfabulous. And you will see soon enough who's coming." The King of Time made a small wave with his hand and Rin was pushed into his room, landing hard on the floor.

"Unfabulous? Weirdo." Rin mumbled, laying down on his bed and thinking about his first real friend.

* * *

Two hours later, Mephisto also came to Rin's room.

"So you haven't changed. I should have known. Well, just come out, he should be here soon." He sighed.

"You still didn't tell me who's visiting. Is i-" Rin stopped when he picked up a familiar scent of a person right in front of Mephisto's office door, "Yukio! Why didn't you tell me that he was coming?"

Rin rushed out of his room, opening the office door. His smile faded when he noticed the small difference between Yukio's and the man's scent who stood in front of him. He stumbled back, bumping into Mephisto who just shoved him aside.

"Father Fujimoto, great you could make it." The King of Time greeted his guest.

"So he really is here." Fujimoto snarled, entering Mephisto's office.

His presence sent Rin a chill down his spine. He knew that Paladin was the highest rank an exorcist could reach and the priest was most likely not on good terms with the Demon Prince after he stole Kurikara and nearly burned down his monastery.

"Yes, he is. Don't be rude, Rin. Greet our guest. You've really been forgetting your manners since you came here." Mephisto grinned, patting on the teenager's back.

"Why is he here?" The Prince's voice was shaking.

The Paladin burst out in laughter.

"The boy has good instincts. He would be stupid if he wasn't afraid." He laughed, making Rin even more uncomfortable.

"But you didn't come here to kill my sweet little brother, did you?" Mephisto asked calmly.

"I could change my mind about killing him when he apologizes for burning down the monastery and killing some good men. It would prove that there is at least some humanity left inside of him and I can't kill a human who regrets what he has done." Shiro crossed his arms, looking at Rin and expecting an apology.

"But it was an acci- Ow!" Rin started but was whacked by Mephisto at the back of his head.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I didn't have control over my flames." The Prince looked at the ground. It was the first time he really questioned what he had one the night he stole Kurikara.

"Fair enough." Fujimoto accepted the apology.

"So, you told Yukio that you could convince Satan not to conquer Assiah. Is that true?" The Paladin asked.

His question was answered by Mephisto who chuckled, knowing that nobody could convince Satan to do anything.

"So I guess that was a lie." Shiro concluded, waiting for Rin to say something.

"It wasn't a lie. I would ask Father, but it's not really a good time. He wouldn't listen to me if I asked him now." He defended himself. Satan wouldn't even really look at him when he saw him last time. Mephisto claimed that Satan was proud of him and just didn't say anything, but he would probably first have to become a King himself before he could ask his father for something big.

"And when would be a good time?" Shiro asked, not believing that Rin could do anything to save Assiah.

"I don't know." The Prince admitted.

"Well, at the latest it would be when my sweet brother claims Gehenna's throne and takes his place. Let's just hope our father won't attack Assiah for at least a millennium." Mephisto explained optimistically.

"Great. So we have to find another way after all." The Paladin sighed, "Okay, I just have to make sure that you're not a threat, so I don't have to report you to the Vatican. The moment you attack someone or reveal your flames, I will tell the other exorcists about you. Do you understand?"

The Prince quickly nodded, still having a lot of respect for the man.

"Okay, don't do anything stupid. I have to go to the service now." The Paladin left the two demons alone.

"It wasn't that bad. I really thought he would attack you. I guess you were lucky." Mephisto stated after the priest left.

"You mean you invited him, expecting he would try to kill me? What is wrong with you?"


	11. Chapter 10 - Spirit Animal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mephisto teaches Rin a new ability.  
But first the young Prince has to visit the new MephiLand Zoo!

It was a rather boring day for Rin. The rain was preventing Rin from going outside and Yukio didn't have time to visit him. Rin also wasn't allowed to invite someone because Mephisto didn't want two teenagers "to babysit" as he had so nicely put it.

Rin sat with his back laid against the bed as he threw his dagger in the air and catching it again, and again. He threw it with such expertise that he never cut himself, until Mephisto slammed the door open startling his younger brother.

Rin let out a loud swear and held on to his now bleeding finger.

"What the hell, Mephisto? At least knock or give me some kind of warning." Rin complained, licking his wound until it healed.

"Oh cut it out. Just don't play with a knife." The King of Time answered, "I'm here to continue your training," Mephisto paused, "Well, more or less."

"More or less? What's that supposed to mean?" Rin asked, standing up and putting his dagger back in its sheath.

"It's not something essential to learn, it's rather something I'm curious about." Mephisto explained.

The Prince listened quietly, wondering what his older brother meant by that.

"You see, the Baal all have the ability to transform into an animal when they are in Assiah. I was wondering if you are able to do this."

"Don't I have similar powers to Father? If he can do i-" Rin started but was interrupted by Mephisto.

"But that is the point. Father has never been in Assiah for more than 10 seconds. I don't know if Father can transform into another form."

"Does that mean I may be able to do something that Father can't do?" Rin asked excitedly.

"You're already doing what Satan is not able to by being here but yes, I guess you could say that." The King of Time just agreed, not knowing how much this meant to his younger brother.

"Amazing! So you're going to start teaching me right now?"

"Not exactly. Before you can transform, or not, you must know which animal you're connected to." The purple-haired man rolled his eyes. He regretted telling Rin about this. All his excitement now would lead to even more disappointment if he wasn't able to take on an animal's form.

"But I hardly know any animals. I have seen a dog and some birds before; and I know that there are things called raccoons, but that's it. " Rin's enthusiastic look diminished.

"Believe it or not, but I already expected that and that is why," A grin appeared on Mephisto's face, "I got you some cards for the zoo newly opened up as an attraction in MephiLand!" He was holding up two tickets.

"What?" Rin was more than confused, "What's a zoo and what the hell is a MephiLand?"

"You'll see. Just go there tomorrow and invite this blonde friend of yours. I bet she tells her friends about this. I couldn't think of better marketing." Mephisto put the tickets in Rin's hand and turned around to leave his room.

"Wait a second. Is there a reason why you want me to be out of here tomorrow?" Rin was skeptical. His older brother wouldn't just give him something without expecting to gain something else. Rin didn't know him for long but the Prince figured out that much about the King of Time.

"You're not as dumb as you look. Okay, maybe I don't want you to be here tomorrow but why is none of your business. Don't complain and have fun." With that, Mephisto left.

"Well, guess I'll invite Shiemi to this MephiLand-thing," Rin internally decided, "Hey! Mephisto! Come back! I need to borrow the key to Shiemi's house!"

* * *

The next day, Mephisto threw Rin out early in the morning. It wasn't that bad since Rin didn't have to sleep much since he became a demon, but now he had to kill time until he could pick up Shiemi. Due to the fact that he still had a few hours until he met up with his friend, Rin was just strolling around the campus of True Cross Academy. He sat down on a bench in one of the many parks and looked around. A little bird flew above his head, making him look up.

"Flying would be fun, maybe I can turn into a bird." He followed the little robin with his eyes.

"Maybe Father would be impressed- No, he would say that I'm wasting my time. He can be so-" He ended his sentence with a groan. A few months ago, he wouldn't have dared to even think about his father like that. Of course, he still wanted to please him but sometimes he would think about what would have happened if he had taken Mephisto's offer that night when he stole Kurikara.

He was so lost in thoughts that he didn't notice how much time had passed. Quickly, he got up and made his way to Shiemi's house.

"Hey, sorry I'm late." These were the first words Rin said when Shiemi opened the door.

"That's okay. Thank you for inviting me." She smiled friendly but still a little bit hesitant.

Looking closer, Rin noticed that she was dressed differently than usual. Her clothes seemed to be chicer. He started to wonder why she dressed up like that when something truly absurd crossed his mind. Did Shiemi think that this was a date? He certainly didn't hope so. Rin considered her a friend, nothing more. Additionally, the heir of Gehenna's throne couldn't get romantically involved with a human. He shook his head to clear his mind. Shiemi probably didn't want to be more than friends with him anyway.

"No problem, I could have asked Yukio but he is always so serious. I thought going with you would be more fun." The Prince said, smiling back.

"You know, Yuki had to go through some hard times and he is the youngest exorcist ever. That's why he's like that. Don't judge him because of it." Shiemi's tone was almost apologizing.

"You like him pretty much, don't you?" Rin asked, imagining Yukio and Shiemi to be a really cute couple.

The blonde girl blushed, looking to the ground in embarrassment so Rin decided to drop the subject.

"So what even is this MephiLand?" He changed the subject shortly before reaching the front gate of the amusement park.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," That was all he could say when he saw the giant statue of Mephisto, greeting them instantly after entering the park, "I'm dreaming, right? Please Shiemi, tell me he didn't open up a theme park about himself."

"You didn't know? MephiLand is one of the biggest parks in all of Japan." She told him, making him shake his head and cover his face, being ashamed for his older brother.

"Let's just go to that new zoo. I hope there are less statues of that show-off." Rin sighed, taking her hand and quickly starting to walk towards the zoo.

"Oh look! There's a pets corner. Let's go!" Rin had never seen Shiemi so excited before. She ran towards a small compound with low, wooden fences and a gate so visitors could get in and pet the small animals in it.

"So a zoo is basically where humans cage up animals and look at them. Humans are weird." The Prince muttered to himself before following the blonde.

Rin saw how Shiemi already sat on a bench, petting something furry with long ears.

When he got closer, it stared at him, starting to panic and running away.

"Oh, too bad," she stood up, "I wonder why it was so afraid, a few seconds earlier, it was so calm."

Rin was looking around.

There had been a lot of animals before, but since he had entered the compound, everything seemed to hide.

"I guess, they don't like me much." Rin read one of the signs, hanging around, displaying the animals of the pets corner.

He doubted that the animal he would connect to was a rabbit, a guinea pig or a goat.

Shiemi just shrugged, leaving the petting farm, Rin following close behind her.

"What's next?" He asked, looking at a map, Shiemi had picked up at the zoo gate.

"There will be a bird show soon, do you want to watch?" She asked, pointing in the direction of the place where the show took place.

"Of course!" Rin immediately agreed, still hoping he could turn into a bird so he could fly.

The bird show was not quite what Rin had expected. He and Shiemi sat in the front row which seemed to make the animals really nervous. It all ended when an eagle almost attacked the Prince instead of catching a piece of meat, its trainer had thrown in the air.

After a whole lot of apologies, Rin and Shiemi left the show.

It didn't take to be a genius to see that most animals reacted either with fear or aggressiveness to the son of Satan.

The lions growled at him and if they hadn't been in a cage, they would probably have charged at him. The monkeys started screaming so loud that Rin felt like his head was going to explode. Having sensitive ears certainly was not always a good thing. Even the insects in the big insectarium didn't even came near the Prince while Shiemi was basically covered in butterflies. Rin wasn't too sad about that. Insects were really more Beelzebub's thing.

The fish in the giant aquarium always swam in the opposite corner as Rin stood.

A horse had tried to kick him and a llama spit at him.

Shiemi was either shocked or laughing at him whenever something like that happened.

He couldn't blame her, he probably looked like a total idiot.

After all that, he started to get really frustrated.

"It's really not your day, is it?" She asked him after the dog of a woman passing by started growling and barking at him.

"Oh no, I just think every animal on this planet hates me." He said, kicking a stone that lay in his way.

"I bet that's not true. We don't know what is going on in their heads. Maybe they had a bad day because they got vaccinated and that's why they are all on edge." Shiemi tried to cheer him up.

"There are just a few compounds left. Let's just get over with it." Rin mumbled, walking towards a large pool of water, containing some seals.

Although Rin really hoped that he didn't turn into an sea creature because Egyn would probably try to kill him, he felt like it would be nice to see another reaction than fear.

Right at the moment when he thought that the seals would be more curious than scared, he was soaking wet from the water they splashed out if their pool.

"Okay, that's it. I'm done. I'm giving up. I've been attacked, almost deafened and spit at. Message received." The Prince growled, clenching his fists.

"Calm down, Rin. Let's just go home." She laid her hand on his shoulder.

"Fine." He grunted, following her to the exit.

While walking towards the gate, he heard a small boy calling out for his father in excitement.

"Look Daddy! It's finally moving! What's the the big kitty doing?" The high voice screamed.

Rin turned around to the compound they had just walked by.

The big black cat inside was exactly mimicking his steps when he came closer.

"See? The panther doesn't seem to hate you." Shiemi stated optimistically.

"Well, it's not a bird, but I think I can accept that." The Prince's mood was lighting up slightly. In astonishment, he looked at the dangerous looking claws and fangs. "That's way cooler than turning into a stupid dog." He muttered, hoping he wasn't too hasty assuming he could turn into a panther.

Shiemi didn't really understand what he was talking about, but she was glad that he wasn't sulking anymore.

* * *

"Hey Mephisto! I'm back!" Rin shouted when he finally came back after bringing Shiemi home.

"What happened to you? You look slightly more awful than usual. Stop right there. You scatter dirt all over my new carpet!" The King of Time greeted his younger brother.

"Okay, okay." Rin rolled his eyes when he took off his shoes.

"But now you finally show me how to transform." The Prince demanded confidently.

"Forget it. Take a shower first. You look like you've been attacked by a bird." Mephisto didn't even look up from his paperwork.

"How would you even know?" Rin grumbled, walking towards the bathroom.

The fastest shower later, the Prince was back still dripping water,"Come on, put away your work and teach me!"

"Quit your whining, I'm coming." Mephisto gave in, following Rin to his room.

"Okay, just stand before me and watch. First you have to focus on the animal you believe you can turn into. What is it anyway? You didn't tell me." The King of Time started explaining.

"You'll see." The younger brother grinned, crossing his arms.

"Alright, if you want to make a mystery out of it. Just focus and-" After a silent poof and a puff of pink smoke, a small white Scottie with a pink ribbon around his neck stood before the Prince.

"And that's it." The little dog said before turning back to the King of Time.

"I just have to focus?" Rin was skeptical concerning Mephisto's teaching methods.

"Basically. Now go on, try it."

"Okay, if you say so." The Prince did as his older brother told him.

After a few minutes of concentration, he already was about to give up when suddenly his blue flames started engulfing him, blinding Mephisto who had to turn away.

The King of Time would never admit to be impressed, but the amount of energy that went in the transformation let him assume that Rin would be something bigger and more dangerous than a terrier or a hamster like Amaimon.

When the blue light faded, the first thing Mephisto heard was Rin's voice bragging, "I did it! Look at me! Ha! I bet you're jealous!"

"Wait, why are you so tall?" The Prince asked right after that.

Mephisto turned around, expecting a tall predator, but when he saw the end result he burst out in laughter.

"Oh little brother, this is just adorable." The King of Time picked the small animal up, holding it before a mirror.

"What the hell? Why am I so small? And let me down, you creep!"

"Well, I didn't consider your age. I'm always forgetting that you're only 16 years old, a baby for demon standards. After a few hundred years, you'll probably be able to turn into a fully grown panther." Mephisto explained, slowly starting to pet the little panther's head.

"Hey! Cut it out!" Rin started to struggle, resulting in falling down on the floor.

A few moments later, he was back in his normal form.

"At least, we know that your are even able to do something like that." The King of Time grinned.

"If the Baal can do it, why shouldn't I? We are all sons of Satan after all." Rin grumbled, standing up.

"You don't know the difference between you and the Baal? Right when I thought that you were at least a little intelligent."

"Don't be such a smartass and just tell me."

"What do you think? What demon would be worthy to, how do I put it, to bear Satan's children? Exactly, none. You, and technically Yukio, are the only ones of Satan's offsprings to be born naturally. The Baal, myself included, were created by Satan himself." Mephisto clarified, trying to make it sound as easy as possible.

"So we're not really brothers?" It was the first question that popped into Rin's head.

"Yes, but no. We share a father but no genetics," Mephisto immediately recognized that Rin wasn't following him and sighed, "We are brothers."

"Then why are you telling me something I know?"

Mephisto shook his head in disappointment, "It's already late so just go to bed."


	12. Chapter 11 - Conscience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin receives a message from Gehenna.  
An unpleasant mission leads him to Kyoto.

"My Prince, please wake up." Rin was woken by a familiar voice. He opened his eyes, blinded by the morning sun; he immediately noticed the scarlet red hair of his former babysitter.

"Cysat? What are you doing here?" The Prince asked, straightening his hair as he rose from his bed.

He couldn't think of any reason why the fire demon would leave Gehenna.

"I'm very sorry for interrupting your sleep my Prince, but I'm here to deliver a message from Lord Satan." Cysat bowed, apologizing to Rin. It made the Prince uncomfortable to have his baby sitter show so much respect.

"Father gave you a message for me? Did something happen?" Rin was alarmed. What would be so important that his father would send a servant rather than just telling Mephisto?

"Everything is alright. You don't have to worry." The servant tried to calm Rin down.

"Then why didn't my father just tell Mephisto?" Despite Rin's redundant questioning, he was glad to see Cysat who had been the closest thing to a friend back in was a servant but he had been the one to raise Rin. He didn't know how Cysat felt about him but Rin really liked the fire demon.

"My apologies, but Lord Samael is not supposed to know about what I'm going to tell you. It was a direct order from Lord Satan that you're supposed to be the only one to receive the message." Cysat started to whisper even though Mephisto probably couldn't hear them either way.

"Okay, then just tell me already." Rin was starting to get impatient.

In sixteen years Rin had learned that Cysat was rather cowardly when it came to Satan and the Baal which often resulted into him beating around the bush.

"Lord Satan has a special mission for you, my Prince. Tonight, an exorcist called Saburota Todo will make the first step to revive the Impure King. The only thing endangering the plan is a monk who's holding a contract with Karura." Cysat started telling.

Rin tried to cover up his insecurity about missions.

In his father's eyes he had failed the first task he had given to him.

When he messed this up Satan would never trust him with anything again.

"So, he wants me to help him steal the eye?" The Prince asked.

"No, I'm sorry if it was unclear. Lord Satan wants you to get rid of the monk and send Karura back to Gehenna so he can be punished for forming a contract with an enemy of all demons." Cysat explained.

"Get rid of the monk? Father wants me to kill this man?" Rin wasn't sure about this. He didn't know if he could just go to a man that had never done anything to him and kill him in cold blood, but the longer he thought about it he realized that he had no choice than following his father's orders.

Cysat answered him by just nodding his head.

"And why shouldn't Mephisto know about this?" The Prince didn't know how he would keep something like this a secret from his older brother. To get out of his room he literally had to pass the seemingly never sleeping King of Time.

"Lord Satan assumes that the King of Time has a close relation to the current Paladin who knows this monk. If he doesn't know about your mission there will be no risk of the Paladin finding out."

"Alright, tonight I'm going to take care of Karura and the contract holder. How do I find him?" Rin accepted the mission, hoping it wouldn't be that hard. He had killed before but these had been accidents. His thoughts circled back to the Dekalp and how guilty he still felt about killing him. But that had been a demon. It was logical that he felt guilty about killing one of his kind. Maybe it would be easier taking care of a human.

Rin could imagine his father laughing at his internal conflict. "_Even the weakest demon stands far above any of those pathetic humans. Killing one is like smashing vermin." _Rin could almost hear his father's voice in his head.

"His name is Tatsuma Suguro. A few Reapers have been watching him since weeks. Every evening he spends his time alone at a shrine in the mountains. Once you arrive, they will lead you to him." Cysat explained further, not noticing Rin's struggle.

"I'm very sorry but I can't accompany you, my Prince. I have to return to the royal palace." The servant immediately added.

"Okay, tell my father that I'm not going to disappoint him and Cysat," Rin scratched his head, "It was really nice seeing you again."

"Likewise, my Prince." After another bow, Cysat disappeared in a small flame.

Rin sighed, letting himself fall on his bed again.

He already said he would do it so there was no going back.

He remembered Fujimoto telling him that he wouldn't tell anyone about Rin's existence as long as the Prince promised not to harm anyone.

Now, he had to take that promise. Maybe he could cover up that he was responsible. If he didn't use his flames and no one saw him, they would just blame another demon.

But still, Rin would know what he did.

He was the son of Satan. Why did he feel like this? Maybe because he had been human once. Maybe because his mother was human. Maybe because he made friends in Assiah.

The weight of being the heir of Gehenna's throne felt heavier on his shoulders. It was expected of him to follow his father's words like the bible, and for him to hate Assiah. He was supposed to be a heartless demon that could kill and slaughter humans, but that just wasn't him.

He thought about it for a long time. So long even Mephisto came to his room, asking why he hadn't come out to annoy him yet.

Crossing his father would mean betraying Gehenna.

Killing that monk would mean becoming a threat to Assiah, which would lead the Paladin exposing him to the Vatican. If he did that, he would never be able to see Yukio or Shiemi.

The longer he thought about it the clearer it got for him that he didn't really have a choice.

If his father casted him out of Gehenna, he would never be able to return to his home or bring any change by claiming the throne. In order to unite Assiah and Gehenna peacefully, he had to become the ruler of the demon realm. He wanted to create a world where everybody fit in like he never did. Back in Gehenna, he lived most of his life as a human, and now that he was in Assiah, he couldn't fit in as a demon. Once Rin had become Satan's successor, he could make sure that demons didn't have to hide anymore in Assiah, and half-demons and maybe even humans could visit Gehenna freely. But until that day came he would have to follow his father's orders and put his personal feelings and conscience aside.

That was the only thing Rin was actually sure about. He wanted to unite the two realms like Satan would never be able to do.

* * *

When the sun slowly started to set, Rin stood up, getting ready to leave.

"So you finally decided to do something. What changed your mind?" Mephisto asked as the Prince made his way to the door.

"I'm meeting Yukio. He doesn't have that much time because of his job as a teacher in cram school." Rin lied, trying to hide his nervousness. He knew it wasn't easy lying to a professional liar like Mephisto.

"Is that so? Yukio is on a mission right now," The King of Time started, making Rin's heart skip a beat, "If you're going to visit your girlfriend, you can tell me, I'm not going to reveal your little secret of dating a human girl to Father."

At first, the Prince didn't know what to say. Mephisto thought he and Shiemi were a pair and he wanted to keep it a secret. Although, what was more surprising was that he would keep it a secret.

"You're not going to tell anyone? Th-thank you." Rin decided to use Mephisto's story as his excuse.

"Not a problem. If Father knew everything I did while being in Assiah, he would probably kill me. Just don't get too used to it." The King of Time mumbled before going back to his paperwork.

It was the first time Rin left the protective barrier around True Cross Academy since Mephisto had brought him to Assiah.

Right outside the barrier a Furfur, a high level wind demon in form of a horse, already waited for him.

"My Prince, I was sent here to bring you to Kyoto, the place where you can find the temple of the Myo Dha." The horse-like demon bowed before Rin and allowed him to climb his back.

"Thank you. But I insist that you're dropping me off before we come to Kyoto. I don't want you to be near the danger." The Prince carefully held onto the Furfur's mane as it slowly started to take off the ground.

"As you wish, my Prince." The green demon answered, flying through the night sky.

"You're from Azazel's kin, right?" Rin tried to do some small talk to calm himself down.

"That is correct. You are well informed, my Prince." That was all he got as an answer.

After that they both remained silent, discomforting the Prince even more.

A little later, Rin could see the a big temple complex at the bottom of a mountain in the distance.

"Okay, I can see it from here. You can stop." Rin told his mount and the Furfur landed in a small forest.

"I'm going to wait here for you, my Prince." The wind demon bowed again.

Rin just nodded, making his way to the temple.

The temple was quiet. Rin could hear the peaceful breaths of people inside but as long as nobody woke up, it didn't concern him.

Hiding in the shadow of a tall tree, he was looking for the Reaper that was supposed to bring him to the monk.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity to him, he saw the small frog hopping towards him.

"There is no going back now." Rin muttered to himself, picking the Reaper up.

He remembered the last time one of the frog demons showed him the way.

"Don't worry, I'll look out for you." Rin was actually trying to reassure himself more than the Reaper.

No demon would die here tonight, he would make sure about that.

He looked down, expecting some kind of an answer, but the frog on his hand remained quiet.

"Okay, you don't have to say anything. Just bring me to that shrine." The Reaper jumped off Rin's hand, showing him a path leading up the mountain.

It wasn't a long walk to the shrine, but Rin tried as hard as he could to lengthen it.

Although, he had already made the decision to kill the monk but that didn't mean he felt comfortable with it.

The Reaper stopped before the shrine which looked like a smaller version of the main temple.

"Thank you. You can leave now, I'll find the way back on my own." Rin muttered.

The small demon nodded returning to Gehenna, unpossessing the small frog.

Until now, it had been quiet in the forest. But now, standing in front of the shrine, he could hear religious chanting from a single person inside.

Carefully, he walked up to the wooden door, slowly sliding it open and revealing a thickly middle-aged man.

Rin clenched his fists, trying to stop his hands from shaking.

"Are you Suguro Tatsuma?" He asked, disturbing the monk in his prayers.

The man, reeking of alcohol, turned around.

He didn't seem to be completely drunk, so it must have had a bit time to sober up.

"Indeed I am. What brings a young boy like you to this shrine at this time?" The monk stood up from his kneeling position.

Rin pulled out his dagger, pointing its tip at the person he was supposed to kill.

"Now don't be hasty. Why would you want to kill me? I don't even know you." Suguro lifted his arms in defense.

"You hold the contract with Karura. I am really sorry and I don't want to do this, but I have to." Rin thought he deserved an answer since he was probably just protecting his friends and family with Karura's power.

"Do you really think that? You are quite young. What could force you to kill a man?" The monk was really calm, talking to Rin.

"You wouldn't understand. Please don't make this harder for me." He felt a little blue flame igniting at the tip of his tail. Before it started burning his clothes, he let it slip out of his shirt.

"I see. You are the one Fujimoto needed Kurikara for all those years ago. I guess his plan didn't work." It would have been a lot easier for Rin if the monk had attacked him. How could he kill someone who wasn't defending himself?

"You are just a kid. What kind of father would expect his child to become a murderer?"

"Shut up! You don't know what you talk about." Rin yelled at him, as he got more nervous.

"Okay, okay, you're right, I don't know your situation," Even if the monk seemed calm, Rin could hear his heart beat rise, "But I can see that you're not a cold hearted killer."

As Rin got more emotional the flame on his tail spread over his whole body.

"I have to be! I have to prove myself, so I can change things! You can't change my decision. I have to kill you."

"Then why are you hesitating?"

"I- I'm not hesitating! I-," A little growl escaped his throat out of frustration, "Why is this so hard? I am the son of Satan dammit!"

"But you are not only that, are you?" The monk's words made him think.

It was right what he said. He was the son of Gehenna's ruler but his mother had been human. Satan had often commented that Rin had inherited her kind soul, which wasn't pleasing the Demon God.

"Don't you understand? I don't have a choice! You have to die and the contract with Karura has to be broken."

"Calm do-" Tatsuma started only to be interrupted from a sudden burst of blue flames.

"Shut up!" Rin's flames blew up the roof. He was clenching his fist to calm down.

It had been a long time since he had lost control of his powers. Rin never really finished his training before Mephisto had taken him back to Assiah, but when he thought about it he had barely used his flames since he came here.

The Prince looked up, knowing that this certainly attracted more attention than he had planned to.

Time was running out. Somebody had to notice the blue flare over the shrine.

"I'm sorry." Rin rushed towards the defenseless monk, aiming for his heart.

Once the blade struck his chest the man collapsed in Rin's arms.

"I'm a fool. I thought-," He coughed, "And I thought I could reason with the spawn of Satan."

A small orange flame emitted from his dying body.

"You ignorant child. You killed the only man able to control my flames and by that the only chance to seal the Impure King." A voice called out to Rin from the flames.

"I know." Rin was shaking, tears filled the corner of his eye. He put Satan's orders over the life of a human being. Would he have to kill more innocent people? What would he do if Satan wanted him to hurt Shiemi or Yukio? He had crossed a line and there was no going back.

"What will you do now, Prince?" Karura pronounced his title with a sarcastic undertone.

"I'm taking you back to Gehenna. I'm sorry." Rin closed his fist around the small flame bird which was too proud for an escape attempt.

"You are truly pathetic. You call yourself a Prince but you are actually just a little soldier that does as his master commands." The monk's familiar snarled, not even looking at Rin.

"I know." The Prince repeated before closing his eyes and pushing his claws in his palm until his blood dripped on the floor.

The Gehenna Gate formed, just big enough for Rin and Karura to fit through it.

Rin took a last glance at the dead monk, mentally preparing for meeting his Satan.

* * *

Gehenna's velvet sky was the first thing Rin saw when he stepped out of the gate.

Guards that had noticed the Gehenna Gate appearing, surrounded him and Karura, kneeling down before Rin when they recognized him.

They took Karura in custody, locking him in a cage.

"Lord Satan is awaiting you, my Prince." One guard proclaimed, showing him to the throne room.

Luckily, the servants and the guards took Rin's silence as a sign of arrogance rather than emotional distress. He didn't want anybody to know that he as the heir of Gehenna's throne was shaken by the death of a mere human.

Stepping into the throne room, the Prince tried to take on a more confident posture.

"You did as I expected from you, my son." Satan greeted him.

It surprised Rin a little bit since his father had only spoken to Mephisto the last time he had been in Gehenna.

The Prince kneeled down before getting a sign from Satan that he was allowed to stand up.

"Of co-" Rin coughed shortly to get rid of the lump in his throat, "Of course, Father."

"And you didn't tell anyone about it?" The God of Gehenna asked as he was trying to test Rin's loyalty. As if killing someone hadn't been enough to prove it.

"Nobody knows where I went and what I did." Rin reassured, looking behind him as guards brought Karura in its cage to them, closely followed by none other than the King of Fire, Iblis.

Rin had never seen his older brother and teacher for everything concerning his flames so serious.

The tall, dark-skinned Demon King was usually really carefree, serene and in Rin's eyes by far the coolest of his brothers. But now, the orange flaring eyes carried determination, disappointment and even a little bit anger.

"Iblis, so you have finally arrived. Since Karura belongs to your kin, it's your duty to judge."

"I know, Father. And I have already decided on the punishment." Rin had never heard Iblis talk in a formal manner like this.

With a short hand gesture Satan told Rin to stand next to him during the trial.

A few months ago, Rin would have been honored to be allowed to stand next to his father during any official affairs, but now there was too much on his conscience.

He already had the blood of a demon on his hands and if Karura was sentenced to death it would be his fault, not to mention the fact that he had killed an innocent human.

The trial went by without Rin paying attention to it.

"Karura, also known as Phoenix and Fenghuang, you are accused of high treason and conspiracy against Gehenna. I, Iblis, Demon King of Fire and ruler of the fire demons' kin, hereby sentence you to death." Rin knew, even though it didn't seem like it, Iblis regretted his decision.

Karura was one of the oldest fire demons and it had to be hard for the King of Fire to pass sentence on him.

"I'll never have regrets about what I did and I accept my punishment." The proud demon bird proclaimed in its cage. At least he would die without losing his dignity.

The guards from before came back and carried Karura away.

"You can both go now. Rin, return to Samael in Assiah." Satan ordered, making himself more comfortable in his throne.

"Yes, Father." Iblis and Rin answered almost simultaneously, leaving the throne room.

"So, you're going back now, aren't ya?" Iblis asked when Rin took out his dagger to return to Assiah.

The Prince nodded slightly, not saying a thing.

"Hey, sorry that ya had to see me like that, Lil' Bro." That was more like the Iblis Rin knew.

"It's okay." Rin muttered, still being lost in thoughts.

"Why so serious? Aren't ya happy to see me? Don't tell me that you feel sorry for Karura, he had it coming." The King of Fire said calmly. Maybe Rin was wrong about Iblis regretting Karura's sentence after all.

"It's nothing really. I'm just tired." Rin faked a yawn, avoiding eye contact with his older brother.

"Tired?" Iblis laughed, "I'm always forgettin' that you're literally my baby brother."

Usually, Rin would have attacked Iblis for that comment but he was too depressed.

"There really is something wrong with you." The King of Fire noticed.

"I said, I'm fine." Rin wanted to end this conversation as soon as possible.

"Okay, okay, if ya don't to talk about it. If you go back, you should work on controlling your flames, I can see that they're about to break out any time, oh and say Sammy hey from me. I haven't seen that bastard for a while."

"You see…?"

"I'm the King of Fire. Of course I can see that flame inside of you raging. You've always been a softie. Quit being so emotional."

Iblis let it sound way too easy to ignore his emotions. He probably didn't understand what was going on in Rin's head. The Prince was ashamed that he didn't find a better solution, he felt guilty about the two new lifes that had ended because of him, afraid because if anyone found out about all of this the exorcists would come to kill him.

"Alright." The Demon Prince muttered, cutting his hand, opening the Gehenna Gate with his blood.

* * *

His way back from Kyoto to True Cross Academy felt longer than before. The sun already rose in the distance, making Rin worry about the excuse he made up.

Silently, he tried sneaking back into his room, even though he knew that Mephisto left his office overnight time he tried to be as quiet as possible.

Opening the door to his room, he stopped halfway when he noticed that the light was switched on.

"Welcome back, Rin. Well, what do you have to say in your defense?" Mephisto asked, sitting on Rin's bed, already awaiting the Prince.

"I don't know what you mean." Rin answered nervously.

Mephisto was just staring at him, waiting for Rin to tell the truth.

"I don't know what you're talking about! Stop looking at me like I did something wrong!" The Prince felt like a cornered animal.

Still, there was only silence from Mephisto.

"STOP STARING! I didn't do anything!" Rin shouted, his flames suddenly engulfed him.

"Liar liar pants on fire. Who would have thought that there was some truth about that?" Mephisto grinned, "I know you've been to Kyoto. Did you think nobody would notice a sudden blue light over the shrine of the Myoo Dharani? You can be lucky that people are still unsure of what they saw."

"I- I-" Rin stuttered.

"I hope you're satisfied with the outcome. The old monk is dead, Karura is dead, but at least Satan is happy, well as happy as he can be."

"If Father is happy, s-" Rin started before getting interrupted by his older brother.

"Then so are you? You don't really believe that, do you?"

"I have to." The Prince clenched his fists.

"If you say so. I don't want to be in your way." Mephisto shrugged his shoulders, standing up.

"But let me say one thing. If people find out about your existence, you can't stay here."

"What do you mean?" Rin was confused.

"If anyone finds out that you killed Suguro Tatsuma, Fujimoto will kill you and expose you to the order. I can't to be affiliated with an enemy of humanity. Then you have to return to Gehenna or find some other place here in Assiah, but you can't live here anymore." Mephisto seemed serious about this.

Maybe he was a traitor after all. Satan trusted Mephisto when he agreed to let Rin come with him, but what if Mephisto was on the exorcists' side?

Without another word, Mephisto left Rin alone.


	13. Chapter 12 - Regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin regrets killing Tatsuma Suguro. But he can't change the past.

That Rin didn't sleep well after his mission in Kyoto would have been an understatement, he didn't sleep at all.

Whenever he closed his eyes, he could see Suguro Tatsuma lying on the floor; his life slowly fading, and Karura, being locked in a cage and waiting for his execution.

He knew that he shouldn't feel guilty, he was the son of Satan after all. But still, these images haunted his thoughts and dreams. Maybe he had inherited more from his human mother than he had thought.

Most of the time, Mephisto acted like nothing happened but now, after 2 days, he suddenly showed interest.

"You know, there is one thing I just don't understand." The King of Time broke the silence after hours of silence and moping around from Rin.

Rin looked up, waiting for his older brother to continue.

"Why did you even use your flames that night? You knew that nobody's supposed to know that Satan's son is in Assiah." Mephisto asked, not receiving an answer from Rin.

The Prince was ashamed that he lost control of the blue flames. This power should be completely under his command, this is an embarrassment to Gehenna's throne

Not being able to manipulate them would mean that he was unworthy and not fit for the throne. A King didn't let himself control by his power or he would lose himself in it.

"Hello? I'm talking to you." Mephisto pulled Rin out of his thoughts.

The Prince mumbled something incomprehensible, which annoyed the King of Time even more than not getting an answer at all.

"What was that? Remember your manners and speak up."

"I didn't want to use them," Rin growled the words a little louder. He didn't want to talk about this subject, especially not to Mephisto.

Realization showed on Mephisto's face, "So you can't control them. Interesting."

"Of course I can control them! Just not when I can't focus." Rin defended himself.

"You mean when you're consumed by your emotions. Don't let father hear that, he would certainly disappointed if he knew that you're getting too sentimental about something."

"Don't you think I know that? I knew it was wrong to take his life but I did it nevertheless."

"And why? Was it because you didn't want to fail Father?"

"No, I-"

"Did you want to prove yourself?"

"No, it's no-"

"Then why did yo-" This time Rin interrupted Mephisto.

"I need to claim the throne and I can only do that when I follow Father's orders. I can't do anything when he banishes me for treason." The Prince explained his motives to his older brother.

"It's the first time I hear that you want to be the ruler of Gehenna so badly," Mephisto commented, getting more and more interested in Rin's plans. It certainly would be exciting to watch him succeed or fail, either way, would guarantee a great show.

"I-" Rin shortly thought about what exactly his plan was, "I want to claim the throne and unite Assiah and Gehenna peacefully before Father can start a war between the realms."

"Before he can start a war? Does that mean you would overthrow the great God of Gehenna Satan himself if necessary?" Mephisto grinned, eagerly waiting for Rin's answer. He didn't care that the Prince was basically conspiring against Satan and he definitely wouldn't give his father a heads up. Where would be the fun in that?

Rin took a while until he answered.

"Yes, I would do that if necessary. But I have to try to convince him first."

"You will actually try to change Satan's mind about his ultimate goal? You know that it sounds insane." Mephisto laid back in his chair.

"I know, but I have to try. He is my father, I don't think I can just kill him like that." The Prince wasn't even sure if he could ever take another life.

"And when are you going to confront our dear father?"

Rin hesitated. When would he bring up the courage to request something like making peace from Satan? He would probably take it as a sign of disrespect, treachery, and weakness. Satan would laugh at his son, not taking him seriously.

"I guess I'll try talking to him next time I'm in Gehenna," Rin said after thinking about it.

"You guess you'll try? That doesn't sound very persistent." Mephisto commented, letting a cup and a tea can appear before taking a sip from his hot beverage.

"But I am sure. I will talk to Father when I'm back in Gehenna."

"So how about you go right now?" The King of Time added a bit of sugar to his tea.

"What? No! It's way too soon. I first have to think about what exactly I'm going to tell him. And could you please stop making tea? It's very distracting!" Rin shouted insecurely.

"All right, I accept that. I may even consider to help you since I also grew really fond of Assiah. But it would also be entertaining to see what you're accomplishing on your own." Mephisto let the cup and tea can disappear.

"You would really help me?" The Prince certainly didn't expect that.

"Do you even listen to me? I said I would consider it. Maybe."

"Thank you, Mephisto! You might be cool after all!" Rin smiled, gaining more confidence in Mephisto's words.

"I said that- oh never mind. Wait, you're thinking I'm uncool? I'm your older brother and the King of Time and Space. What would be cooler than that?" Mephisto was obviously offended.

"No, of course, I think you're cool, umm, I'll just go out and I uh," Rin made his way to the door, quickly leaving the office when he reached it.

"Me and uncool. I don't think any of our brothers had the complete collection of Dia Witch Iroha action figures so how can they be cooler than me?" The King of Time muttered sorely after Rin left.

* * *

At first, Rin didn't really have a clear goal when he walked through True Cross Academy. After thinking about his plan over and over again, he decided to look for Yukio. His younger twin brother would certainly help him when it came to making peace between Gehenna and Assiah.

He took the same way as the time he went with Yukio to the Cram School. When he reached the door and opened it he stood in front of an empty broom closet.

"What the hell? Why isn't the Cram School there?"

He closed the door and opened it again just to find the closet.

He tried a few more times without luck.

"Is that the wrong door?"

He closed the door again, looking around for another way when suddenly the closet opened on his own.

"Too bad that Ryuji, Konekomaru, and Shima weren't here. I bet they would have fun in this lesson." Shiemi said, walking out of the before empty closet.

"They have family business to take care of. But it would be nice if you could give them your notes. You really did do a great job today." Yukio answered, following her through the door only to be stopped by Rin who jumped in front of his twin brother.

"Yukio! There you are! I tried to come to the Cram School to visit you but I just landed in a closet again and again."

"What are you doing here? Why would you try to come to the Cram School?" Yukio was more than confused about his twin's appearance.

"Rin! It's nice to see you. Did you recover from our trip to the zoo?" Shiemi smiled at the half demon.

"Oh Shiemi, hey. Everything's fine, uh, can I talk to Yukio for a second?"

"Of course, I have to go home anyway. See you tomorrow in class, Yuki!" Shiemi left the two alone, making her way home.

"I didn't know you and Shiemi were close friends. She doesn't know about your heritage, right?" Yukio was skeptical about this friendship. He knew that Rin supposedly wasn't an enemy of Assiah but he didn't want him as a demon get too involved with humans.

"Well, I helped out at her Mom's shop and I guess we became friends, isn't that awesome?" The demonic twin smiled.

"That depends on the stance. However, why did you want to visit me?"

"I need to talk to you about my plan to stop Father from starting a war. I thought it might be important enough to talk to you immediately." Rin tried to sound less excited and more serious than he actually was.

"So you didn't say that just to save your hide after all. All right, but I think we should go to my dad and talk to him too." Yukio took out his key ring, opening the closet door again with a rather plain looking key.

"Yes, that would be great. He is the Paladin, maybe he can help us, even if he is kinda scary." The Demon Prince could imagine that the highest ranked exorcist was able to talk to their leaders, making a peace treaty possible.

He watched carefully what his younger twin did when he opened the door with one of his keys.

"Oh, now I get it. You're using Mephisto's keys to get to the Cram School, that's why I only found this closet."

"Well, yes. This one's leading to the monastery. You're probably lucky that nobody but Dad should be there."

"Ha! I knew it. Take that, Mephisto, I'm not that stupid!" Rin followed his twin brother through the door, stepping into the monastery.

* * *

"Dad? Are you there? It's me and," Yukio shortly looked at Rin before finishing his sentence, "Well, Rin is also here."

"I really hope you didn't mess up already." Fujimoto greeted Rin, entering the room.

Messing up was an understatement. Killing the head of the Myoo Dharani would probably be considered more than slipping up.

"No, of course not, Sir." Rin's voice trembled, fearing he would be caught in the lie and out of respect for the Paladin. He was more than uncomfortable. Maybe Fujimoto knew about his trip to Kyoto. Maybe that was why he was talking about Rin messing up. People would probably expect Rin to be a great liar since he was the son of Satan, but in his time in Gehenna, he didn't need to tell lies. Why would he? He was the crown prince and nobody but Satan did have the right to scold him for something he had done wrong. Of course, he could have tried lying to his father when caused trouble but he wasn't suicidal. Lying to Satan was something absolutely no one dared to do; except Mephisto probably.

"I'm just kidding, boy. Why are you two here?" The Paladin laughed, sitting down in an armchair.

Rin relaxed a little bit, it seemed like Shirou didn't know about the murder of Suguro Tatsuma.

"Well, I want to talk to my father about sparing Assiah. I know it is very unlikely that he accepts my belief that a war is unnecessary but I have to try. I thought about it and I want to make peace between humans and demons but to make that happen I need humans, no wait, I need exorcists trying to convince the Vatican to stop killing demons." The Demon Prince choose his words carefully.

"You make it sound like it's a decision to kill demons. Exorcists protect people from random attacks. Should we just let this happen?" Yukio crossed his arms, being suspicious of Rin's plan.

"If I could convince my brothers to stop their kin from attacks on Assiah you wouldn't have to defend yourself. But it's not like exorcists are never the aggressors." Rin tried to explain, "Some demons are just here to get stuff that doesn't exist in Gehenna, like candy. And many demons can't control their aura, they don't even know that humans feel sick around them."

"But it is fact that demons harm people," Fujimoto muttered. He didn't mean to accuse someone, he was just stating what he knew.

"I think if Astaroth told his kin to stay in less populated places, fewer people would get sick since they are the main source of illnesses. You don't even know how often I got sick when I was little just because Astaroth stood a bit too close to me; it took a while until I got used to his miasma. When we manage to accomplish little things like that, I am sure we can unite Gehenna and Assiah!" The Prince's voice was determined, even though he first had to convince or defeat his father, the latter was more than impossible at the moment. He had never seen his father fight but there had to be a reason why nobody dared to challenge him.

"Wait, what do you mean by uniting?" Yukio asked, smashing a big part of Rin's confidence.

"I think what Rin is trying to accomplish is a world where demons and humans can live together peacefully. Isn't that right, boy?" Shirou was skeptical but willing to listen to Rin.

"Well, yes, of course. What else could I mean?" Rin looked at his twin brother. Wasn't he supporting him?

"But that's crazy. After centuries of demon attacks, we can't just start living with them. Wouldn't it be better to close off both realms so nobody can travel between them?" Yukio's words hurt Rin. If they closed off the realms, Rin would never be able to come back to Assiah, making it impossible to see him or Shiemi ever again. He would be stuck in Gehenna and in his 16 years living there, he had learned that it could be really boring.

Before, Rin had been sure that Yukio would like the idea and support him. What was he supposed to do when his twin brother was against him? He would need every help he could get from Assiah.

"But when Gehenna and Assiah are united we can all profit from one another." The Prince tried to argue.

Yukio didn't seem to be convinced, "I don't see how anyone benefits from it."

"I'm sure Assiah is one a far higher technological level than Gehenna, right?" Fujimoto asked the Demon Prince.

"Exactly! We don't have amazing things like cars or TVs or other stuff like that. But what we have are all kinds of magic. It doesn't matter how far your technology advances, you can't stop natural catastrophes. I've seen it in Mephisto's TV that there are earthquakes and tsunamis destroying whole cities and killing many people. I don't understand how these disasters occur but I am sure that earth and water demons could stop them." Rin stated, hoping Yukio would help him after all.

"And how can we be sure that demons would actually try to help us? They could exploit the permission to stay in Assiah." The glasses wearing twin seemed to be a hopeless case.

"When the ruler of Gehenna is telling them to help with the problems in Assiah nobody is going to refuse it."

Fujimoto listened carefully to what Rin said.

"The ruler of Gehenna? Is there a reason why you're not saying Father or Satan?" The Paladin reassured himself.

"Well, I-" Rin tried to frame his plan right since overthrowing his father was the last thing he would try to do, "I am willing to take my father's place if there is no other way to unite the realms."

This actually surprised the two exorcists.

"You're going to kill him?" Shirou stood up, "I don't think you really mean that."

"You want to take the throne?" Yukio was obviously not believing him.

"It's not like I want to do it but if I have to." Rin took a step back, perceiving Shirou's movements as a threat.

"All right, if that's really the case I'm going to put a good word for you with the Grigori," The Paladin started, earning a shocked look from Yukio.

"But Dad…" The younger twin started, only to be interrupted by Fujimoto who was still talking to Rin.

"I have one condition. You won't hurt any human and share all the information you have about Gehenna." Shirou finished his sentence.

"Are you going to tell me about the Vatican's plans and strategies and stop hurting demons?" Rin turned the situation around.

When the Paladin didn't answer the Prince knew that they still didn't trust him. But how could he blame them? They didn't know yet but he had already killed someone to achieve his father's goals.

"It's okay, I guess. But I can't tell you anything, I'm sorry. To be honest I probably couldn't tell you anything about Father's exact plans." That wasn't a complete lie. He had never been allowed on the war council so Rin had no idea what exactly Satan and the Demon Kings were planning. He had been told that he would be allowed there once he was a King.

He knew that a part of the plan was the revival of the Impure King, but what they wanted to accomplish by that Rin didn't know.

"I thought you would be second in command, being the heir of the throne," Yukio questioned distrustfully.

"You think I'm that high up? I'm probably in tenth place in the hierarchy right now." Rin explained, defending himself, "What is it with you that you seem so suspicious of me? Last time we saw each other you said that I wasn't as dangerous as you thought and now you are treating me like I could betray you anytime!"

Rin was clearly upset about Yukio's skepticism.

"Just because you're not as dangerous as I thought I don't think you pose a threat at all. You still are the heir of Satan." His younger twin's look was determined, it didn't seem like he would change his opinion any time soon.

Rin sighed, "Why do I have to prove everything I say through actions?" He muttered to himself.

"Trust just isn't easily gained." Fujimoto ended the little argument, going back to more important matters.

"How are you going to convince the 8 Demon Kings to help you?" The Paladin asked.

Trying to ignore Yukio's glares Rin shortly thought about it.

"At home in Gehenna, everything is about strength. I have to beat my brothers in a fight of life and death." The Prince explained.

"You're trying to kill the Baal?" Shirou reassured.

"They're not going to die, it takes a lot of energy to kill a Demon King. They will probably be out for a few days. They will accept that I'm stronger and follow me." Rin knew that it was easier said than done. All of his brothers were extremely powerful even if some of them weren't much of a fighter. He couldn't imagine Azazel or Mephisto to fight on their own but they didn't have to anyway. Rin could be lucky that Mephisto already decided to take his side or be a neutral party. The power to control Space and Time wasn't something to be underestimated. Azazel, on the other hand, was really calm and diplomatic, maybe Rin wouldn't have to fight him but rather just convince him that he was a worthy leader.

Egyn would certainly put up a fight. The King of Water was quiet but still, waters run deep. He was arrogant and would never submit to Rin voluntarily. It really didn't help that Rin was a fire demon which put him at a major disadvantage. Egyn's water was one of the few things that could quench the royal blue flames. Rin had to get creative to find a way to beat him.

Iblis would also be hard to beat. Rin learned from him everything he knew about controlling his flames and the King of Fire had far more experience. If Rin went all out against him his own flames would overpower his brother's. The question was if Rin could use all of his power against him. Iblis had always been his favorite brother. Knowing that Rin would be a fire demon when he grew up made the King of Fire look out for him and bond with him even if he rarely visited the Castle. Whenever Iblis came back from Assiah and stayed for a few days in Gehenna Rin hadn't been as lonely. Rin decided that he would try to talk to him before fighting him.

Astaroth, Beelzebub, and Amaimon were probably the smallest problems. Being the youngest of the Baal they were also the weakest. Additionally, Astaroth as the King of Rot and Beelzebub as the King of Insects were weak to fire which was Rin's trump card if he fought them.

Amaimon was a skilled fighter but by now Rin had seen him fight multiple times. Next time they clashed, the Prince would be prepared.

The one that posed the greatest threat was Lucifer, the King of Light. He was the oldest and strongest of the Baal. Rin had never met him because he had always been in Assiah and he could just vaguely imagine what it meant to control light itself.

But before he made plans to challenge his brothers he wanted to talk to his father. Maybe Rin got lucky and Satan would listen to him.

"Fight everyone stronger than you until there is nobody left. Sounds like a simple plan." Fujimoto agreed.

Yukio looked like he wanted to object but before he could say anything there was an acute ringing in the Paladin's pocket.

He took out his cellphone, listening to what the caller had to say.

"What? How?"

"Are you sure?"

"I'll head there immediately."

He ended the call with a grave expression on his face.

"Yukio, we have to go now. There is a problem with the Kyoto Branch."

The Paladin took out one of his keys.

"You have to leave now, Rin. Just contact Yukio if something comes up."

They practically threw the Prince out of the monastery before disappearing with the key.

Rin didn't even have time to react but when the two exorcists were gone he stood there in shock.

What if they found out what he did in Kyoto? What was the problem? Did he cause it?

Quickly, he made his way back to True Cross Academy. Maybe Mephisto knew what was going on.


	14. Chapter 13 - Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All actions have consequences.  
Rin learns that the hard way.

The first thing Rin noticed when he made it back to the academy, was the lack of exorcists that usually guarded the gates to the campus. When he wanted to pass the Southern Rear Entrance to True Cross he heard someone calling out for him.

"Hey! Stop it! What do you think you're doing? You can't just invade the Academy while most exorcists are on a mission!"

At first, Rin didn't know who had spoken to him until there was something small jumping in his way.

"Are you going to answer me or do I have to get serious?" The black cat before him asked slightly growling.

Rin had never seen a Cat Sidhe since most of them resided in Assiah as familiars of powerful exorcists but he has heard of them.

"Just let me through. I have to talk to Mephisto!"  
"I don't believe you and I won't let a high ranking demon like you just pass."

The small black cat started growing, getting in a battle ready stance.

"I'm in a hurry, you idiot. I don't want to hurt you. Don't make me do that." Rin reached out for his dagger.

When the Cat Sidhe charged the Rin realized something that made him lose focus.

While fighting he had to obtain his more or less human form since he was in Assiah and he didn't know who could be watching.

Not paying attention Rin was thrown back against a stone pillar.

"Fuck, that hurt." The Prince brushed some dust off his clothes. He couldn't use his flames and had to focus on looking, human, while fighting. The latter would certainly be harder for him to accomplish.

He put his dagger back in his belt and dashed forward. He grabbed the cat demon by his collar and slammed him on the ground, holding him down in a wrestling-like grip.

"I don't want to hurt you and I really need to talk to Mephisto!" Rin tried to explain one more time.

Rin felt like the Cat Sidhe was trying to say something but he was cut off by an all too familiar flamboyant voice.

"What are you doing? Please don't start killing your time by beating up the entrance guards." Mephisto sighed, hovering a few feet over the two fighting demons.

Rin instantly released the cat demon, thinking of some way to defend himself.

"I didn't beat him up! He attacked me first and didn't let me through." He shouted before getting knocked to the ground by a gigantic paw.

"I got him! I demand catnip wine as a reward!" The Cat Sidhe meowed, proudly looking up to Mephisto.

The King of Time rolled his eyes.

"Fine with me." He snapped his fingers, making a bowl with a weird smelling drink in it appear. "Next time, you can just let him through, Kuro. He's my little brother and allowed to access the school grounds."

Kuro let go of the Prince and shrunk down to his original size.

"Alright, sorry for attacking you." He apologized to Rin, drinking his catnip wine.

Rin stood up, "It's okay. You were just doing your job."

"It was really fun fighting with you. You can come by anytime if you want to play. I'm Kuro by the way." The small black cat grinned after finishing his wine.

"I'm Rin and I really have to talk to Mephisto now. I would like to come back but now I really don't have any time." Rin apologized.

"Okay, see you soon." Kuro jumped back onto a pillar.

Rin looked at Mephisto, "How did you even know I'm here? Are you watching me again? Don't you have anything better to do?"

"You're thinking pretty highly of yourself. Your life isn't that interesting." Mephisto pointed towards one of the Academy's towers, "My office is right there. I've seen you from my window."

"So, why do you need to talk to me all of the sudden? I'm actually really busy so it better be important."

The King of Time snapped his fingers once more, teleporting himself and Rin into his office.

"Of course it's important!" Rin insisted, shaking his head slightly after the teleporting which made him a little dizzy.

"I was with Yukio and the Paladin when they suddenly needed to leave for Kyoto." The Prince explained.

"And now you're worried that they find out about your little trip there? I can assure you that it has nothing to do with it. Every fully trained exorcist of the Japanese branch has been called to Kyoto to fight a very powerful demon that appeared there." Mephisto told him casually.

"A powerful demon?" Rin thought about it for a second, "Wait, it's not-"

"It is, little brother. The Impure King has been awakened and since the head of the Myoo Dharani is dead and Karura probably shares this fate people are struggling to get him under control. It seems like no exorcist can summon a fire demon powerful enough to defeat him."

Rin was shocked, it was his fault that there was nobody who could stop the Impure King. Before, he hadn't thought about the bigger consequences following his actions. How could he forget about the Impure King?

"I have to do something. They are going to die!" He exclaimed, thinking about a way he could get to Kyoto as fast as possible.

"Lucky for you, I was just on my way there. I could bring you with me of course." Mephisto made it seem like he was just thinking out loud.

"Please bring me there. I want to help them. I can't let the war break out."

"You're so impatient. I am going to take you with me but before you start going into battle, I have to remind you that you can't use your flames in front of the exorcists and they are everywhere in the area right now."

"Alright alright, let's go already!"

"Fine, eins zwei drei." The King of Time chanted swinging his umbrella around, making them disappear in pink smoke.

Rin found himself roughly 300 feet up in the air on a small stool that seemed floating on its own.

Next, to him, Mephisto sat in a comfortable looking pink armchair.

"What's going on? How am I supposed to help them from up here?" Rin asked, trying not to move too much on his stool, fearing he would just fall down.

"Let me explain something to you." Mephisto started, looking at his little brother.

"You are in the same situation as I am. You're neither on the humans' side nor on the demons'. In your case, it's because you want peace for both realms. That means that you can't interfere in any actions without taking a side. When you go down there and help the exorcists, Father would consider it to be high treason. On the other hand, if you help the Impure King Fujimoto would certainly blow the whistle on you, making you an enemy of the Vatican."

"So what am I supposed to do? Just sit here and watch?" Rin growled. He couldn't accept the fact that he couldn't do anything. Yukio could be down there fighting, maybe losing his life. Even though the younger twin had been really harsh before, Rin didn't want him to die.

"Exactly, you simply can't be more than a spectator until you actually manage to take Gehenna's throne."

"But those people are dying down there!" Rin tried to argue. He understood what Mephisto was telling him but still, it was hard for him to do nothing to help.

"Kyoto is lost. The order was depending on Karura's purifying flames. If they were smart they would just retreat." Mephisto yawned slightly while watching a few exorcist struggles with new spores of the Impure Kind appearing before them.

"Can I at least sa-" Rin started, wanting to watch after Yukio.

"No. What don't you understand? You're supposed to sit here or go home." The King of Time groaned annoyed.

"But what if-"

"For Gehenna's sake, no! Stop acting like a child and if you must know Yukio is as safe as he can be here since he stays behind with the other Doctors to treat the injured."

Before Rin could even open his mouth to say anything else Mephisto cut him off again.

"If you're going to say anything about you going down there and help, I'm going to trap you in a pocket dimension full of water."

The Prince knew that he had to choose his words wisely if he really wanted to help.

"But Mephisto, I thought a King has to make his own decisions. I am not asking you if I can go down there. I'm deciding it for myself." He spoke up carefully.

The King of Time looked at him in surprise. He seemed to think about it for a second.

"Well, I guess if you consider this a lesson and we say that you learn about taking responsibility for your own actions…" Mephisto sighed before continuing, "Alright, but don't you dare involving me into this."

"Great! Thank you! Now, can you drop me off at the ground?" Rin asked looking down.

Mephisto grinned, "Drop you? Well, if you really want to."

He snapped his fingers and the small stool Rin sat on just disappeared, resulting in Rin falling towards the ground.

The impact on the muddy ground hurt, but since Rin was a demon he wasn't badly injured.

"You know exactly how I meant that, you bastard." The Prince muttered under his breath, feeling his wounds and fractures heal.

He landed not so far away from the battle but nobody had noticed him yet since the exorcists were a little busy trying not to die.

Now, he was standing there, not far from the next exorcists battle the Impure King, but what was he supposed to do?

Talk to the rot demon? Rin didn't even know if he had a head or a brain since he grew to the size and form of a castle. The Prince decided that it was worth a try.

He climbed up a tree so he had a clear sight on the gigantic demon.

"Hey! Hey, you!" Rin shouted. Where were the ears of the Impure King? He gave up quickly, starting a new approach.

If the Impure King had a conscience it had to have a brain, and if it had a brain there was a chance that Rin could establish a telepathic link.

"_Stop! Stop growing already!"_ Rin tried to reach the demon mentally. After not receiving an answer and no visible reaction Rin gave it one last try.

"_I, the son of Satan, command you to stop!"_ The Prince felt uncomfortable giving orders. He didn't know if he was even in the position to order a high ranked demon like the Impure King around because Rin wasn't a Demon King. His father kind of took his authority from him when he sent him to Assiah with Mephisto.

It was a relief when the Impure King actually stopped moving.

"What's going on? Why is it standing still?" Rin heard an exorcist ask one of his colleagues.

"I don't know. Do you think we did it?"

"But nobody is able to summon a powerful fire demon. How would it be defeated?"

Where people were screaming in pain and shouting orders only a few moments before, silence emerged.

"_Who are you? Lord Satan doesn't have a son."_ There was a deep voice slowly talking inside Rin's head.

So the Impure King was able to talk after all.

"_You were sealed for a long time. My name is Rin and I'm the heir of Gehenna's throne."_ Rin answered, trying to sound confident.

"_I need a proof. If you're the heir you possess the flames."_ The Impure King's thunderous voice boomed inside his head.

Rin looked around. If he used his flames to burn anything, no matter how small it was, someone would notice it.

"_I can't show them to you. The exorcists would discover me."_

"_The son of the great Satan would never cower before puny humans. How dare you insulting Gehenna by claiming to be the heir. Leave now."_ Rin felt like his head was going to explode from the noise the demon made.

A scream cut through the silence and confusion of the exorcists.

The Impure King started to grow again, covering many people in fungi.

"I think it's going to explode soon. Kyoto will be completely lost when that happens! Summon more salamanders! We need to stop this!" A high-ranked exorcist shouted while shooting at the spreading spores.

"Stop!" Rin shouted, jumping down from the tree.

If he didn't do anything quickly, everyone in Kyoto would be caught in the deadly miasma.

The Impure King didn't answer him anymore.

The Prince was passing the exorcists while running towards the rot demon.

"What? Who is this kid? Stop him! He's running to his death!" Someone shouted at him but they were to slow.

It was a rash decision Rin would regret afterward but when the spores started growing into his direction he lit them on fire, burning almost 30 feet of the Impure King.

Seeing the blue flames spread panic among the exorcists.

They didn't know what was going on and what they were supposed to do.

Even though Rin couldn't hear the Impure King's voice anymore, he knew that he was in pain. He was probably trying to apologize after seeing the flames but this time Rin was the one preventing the telepathic link. It was like the time he had killed the Dekalp. Back then, he only wanted to save Shiemi, now he wanted to save all the humans living in Kyoto. He let his instincts take over. His flames spread wildly, burning more and more of the Impure King.

On the exorcists' side, there were only two people understanding what was going on.

One of them was readying his weapon.

Rin didn't know how much time had passed until he got back to his senses.

He had burned down every last bit of the Impure King. He had never used his powers to that extent and felt exhausted.

He heard a clicking behind him. Turning around, he saw a group of exorcists pointing guns at him. It wasn't a large group since most of them had been injured by the Impure King.

Father Fujimoto wasn't there but there was a familiar face among them.

"Yukio? What are you doing? Tell them that I'm not a threat." Rin was a little nervous. He was surrounded, tired and vulnerable.

"I can't do that."

"Okumura? You know what's going on? Who is this demon?" Another exorcist asked, his hands were shaking.

"Yukio, please don't…" Rin was cut off by his younger twin.

"His name is Rin. He is the son of Satan. Last year, he attacked the Southern Cross Boys' Monastery and killed two priests." Yukio reported to his colleagues.

Rin was speechless. He knew that they didn't get along that well but they were family. He had never thought that Yukio would betray him like that.

"Does anyone know how we are supposed to handle a situation like this? Should we kill him? Capture him?" The Exorcist with the shaking hands asked.

"If we can capture him, we should. Can we capture him?"

Rin still couldn't say anything. His brothers had always been an important part of his life. He would never abandon one of them, not even Egyn.

"We can," Yukio confirmed before reciting a sutra.

At first, Rin didn't know what he was doing but then a numbing pain shot through his body.

He felt like someone was cutting off his tail. He could just stand there, paralyzed, experiencing the second worst pain he had ever felt.

"A sealing charm? How?" One of the exorcists stuttered impressed.

That's when it struck Rin. The small golden ring Yukio had given to him at New Year's Eve was sitting at the exact point the pain emitted from.

Had he planned to use it one day?

There was another pain that was unknown to him. He had trusted Yukio even if he didn't return that feeling. It was like someone had ripped his heart out.

Slowly, Rin clenched his fist.

"He's still moving. Shouldn't he be knocked out by now?" An exorcist asked, cocking his gun.

With a loud growl, Rin managed to summon his flames once more.

They protected him from the bullets, pushing the exorcists away from him without harming them too badly.

It took him a second until Rin could move again.

He thought about checking if they were alright but he decided to run.

After a few steps, there was a loud bang followed by something hitting Rin in the shoulder.

Turning around, he saw Yukio pointing with his last strength his gun at him.

Should he fight? No, he wasn't like Yukio. He wouldn't attack his brother if he had a different choice.

Rin was completely drained. He could probably use his powers one more time for that day.

"You can't run." Yukio stood up never letting his eyes off his brother.

"Yeah? Watch me, traitor." Rin started running towards the forest, hearing more shots behind him.

If Yukio wasn't tired as well, he probably would have hit Rin, but now the bullets struck trees and rocks next to him.

When the last bullet of this magazine missed Rin only by inches, the Prince concluded that he was too big of a target.

If he only could get smaller somehow.

But then Rin remembered that he could get smaller.

Yukio reloaded his gun when he was blinded by a bright blue light.

When the blue light died out Rin was gone.

"Where are you?!" The younger twin shouted.

There was a silent rustle of leaves but that was it.

Rin wasn't really fast in his panther-form. His legs were too short. But at least his black fur was the perfect camouflage in the dark forest.

He was running as fast as he could and as long as he could. He couldn't fully put weight on his left foreleg because of the bullet wound.

He didn't know how long he had run but the sun was rising after a while.

He turned back to his human form when he reached a small abandoned hut. He couldn't even walk in, fainting from exhaustion before he could reach the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually changed the titles of the last two chapters. On fanfiction.net they are called "Differences" and "Spectator" but I found these to be more fitting now.


	15. Chapter 14 - It's my precious life!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin has to face his father after what happened in the last chapter.

_"__Look! Look! Awake!"_ A high pitched voice was the first thing Rin perceived when he woke up.

His shoulder hurt and he was still tired but he felt that he was lying on a comfortable bed which gave him a feeling of safety.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, seeing a small green creature jumping up and down on his chest.

"What is it, Nee?" The familiar voice of a girl reacted to the baby Greenman's shouting.

The person came closer to the bed and he recognized the familiar blonde and green eyes; he knew where he was.

"Shiemi? What happened? How did I get here?" The Prince sat up, accidentally dropping Nee who had still been on his chest to fall down.

After a quick apology, he looked back at Shiemi, waiting for answers.

"Well, Nee and I were searching rare herbs to treat severe burns in the woods yesterday. Nee suddenly started running away and I followed him to a small hut and you were just lying before the front door." She started telling him.

"Yeah right, I collapsed thereafter esc-" Rin stopped. He couldn't tell Shiemi what happened. She was only his friend because she didn't know who he really was.

There was an awkward silence after that.

To Rin's surprise, Shiemi broke the silence after a few minutes.

"You were running from the exorcists, right?" She asked slowly.

The Prince was shocked. How could she know about this?

Unable to say anything, Rin had to listen to what else she had to say.

"I had to remove a Naiad Bullet from your shoulder and Nee gave some Mr. Homily. I wasn't sure if your wounds could get infected by something so I just used it to be sure."

She was talking about it like it was a totally normal thing for someone to be shot with a blessed bullet. Rin came to the conclusion that she had to know about his heritage.

"Aren't you afraid?" He asked scared of her answer.

"Why would I? You're my friend, right?"

The Prince didn't know what to say.

"I was a little shocked when I found out that you were," She stopped short to take a breath, "a demon but you were always so nice to me and you helped me in the garden, also Nee really seemed to like you."

"How long did you know?" The Prince almost didn't dare to ask.

"A few weeks after you started working in the garden. You always talked to the Greenman like you could actually understand them and you always avoided certain plants. At first, I thought you were just a little odd but then you saved me from that Dekalp but you said that you weren't an exorcist. You even laughed about it when Suguro asked you." She explained, staring at her fingers as if she was ashamed that she didn't say anything.

"If you knew the whole time why are you helping me? They've probably declared me an enemy of the Vatican by now."

"I already told you, you're my friend. I know that you're not a bad person. Whatever you did, there is probably an explanation." She smiled warmly.

Rin couldn't believe it. Shiemi wasn't afraid of him and she was willing to help him even though she was human and he was a demon. The Prince had never thought about it but Shiemi was probably his first true friend. He wondered if this was what friends were for. Shiemi didn't care where he came from and believed in him. She didn't have any prejudices about him and helped him without question when he needed her. Thinking about this moved him to tears.

He pulled her close to himself and hugged her.

"You're awesome, you know that?"

"Rin, wha-" She wanted to protest against the hug at first but when she noticed how sentimental he got she just let him.

The hug lasted for quite a while. When Rin calmed down he let her go.

"Sorry. I usually don't do that. Father would banish me if he saw me like that." The Prince laughed slightly embarrassed.

"Your father? I thought demons were created or they would just appear."

Rin made really confused look.

"No. I mean some are but I have a father and a mother. I should really go back, he is probably angry at me." He sighed. Did Satan already know about him stopping the Impure King? Would he be angry? It was a really stupid question, of course, he would be angry. Rin didn't regret saving all those people but his father would definitely not agree.

"Why would he be mad?" Shiemi asked concerned.

"Well, I revealed myself to the exorcists and I fought a demon that was supposed to destroy Kyoto."

"But why are the other exorcists hunting you if you another demon? You helped them, right?"

"I did help them but it seems like that doesn't count when you're the son of Satan."

Shiemi was shocked.

"Your father is Satan? That is-"

Rin interrupted her, worried about the look on her face, "I get it. You didn't expect that and now you're scared. You don't have to help me. It's okay."

He sighed disappointedly. He should have known. Helping a demon was a whole other story than helping the fucking antichrist.

"No. I meant that it must be hard. Sorry, I don't know anything about him. He is probably not like everyone says." Shiemi reassured him.

"Does that mean you're still not scared?"

"No, I told you that you're my friend. It doesn't matter who your father is. You are your own person."

"You're right. Thank you." Rin smiled.

"So do you really have to go back?"

"Of course. Sooner or later I will have to return home. I'm the Prince of Gehenna, I can't just abandon everything there."

He stood up.

"Thanks for your help. Please don't tell anyone I was here, especially not Yukio."

"Yuki? I thought you were friends or something like that."

"We are brothers actually. It's a really long story but he isn't really fond of me." Rin looked to the ground, still hurt by Yukio's betrayal.

Sensing that Rin didn't want to talk about it, Shiemi let it slide even though she was more than curious.

"Thank you again for everything. I'll come back after I talked to Father." Rin said, hoping Satan would actually let him return to Assiah.

"Good luck, Rin. I hope he won't be too mad." Shiemi said goodbye, accompanied by Nee who did the same in his own taciturn way.

* * *

Entering Gehenna, Rin immediately noticed Astaroth standing in front of the Gehenna Gate Rin stepped out of.

"This time you really screwed up." The King of Rot greeted him obviously boiling.

At first, Rin didn't know what his problem was but then he remembered that the Impure King belonged to Astaroth's kin.

"Listen, I'm sor-"

"Save this for Father." He interrupted Rin, heading towards the throne room.

The Prince cursed mentally before following his older brother.

The throne room had never felt this intimidating before and walking up to his father seemed to take an eternity.

Astaroth stood next to the throne, glaring at his younger brother who was kneeling down before him and his father.

"Father, please let me explain." The Prince started. His voice was desperate. He had never been afraid of his father until now, intimidated yes, but never afraid. He knew that he made a grave mistake in Satan's eyes and being his son alone might not be enough to save himself this time from his father's wrath.

"Who allowed you to talk? You are here because you are charged with high treason. The only reason why you aren't locked up or dead yet is that you are my son and your brother Iblis asked me to hear you out. So know your place." Satan growled, making Rin shiver.

Iblis put in a good word for him? He really hoped that this was enough.

"I'm sorry, Father." Rin lowered his head.

"To be honest, I would have never expected this from you. Firstly, you kill the Impure King who almost succeeded in taking down most of the higher ranked exorcists of Japan, including the Paladin. Secondly, you reveal yourself to those pathetic human beings, taking away our element of surprise in the inevitable coming war. And then I hear that even when they attack you, you are too much of a coward to fight back, fleeing instead." Satan's voice was cold.

"I know but I ca-"

"You purposely killed one of the first demons I created, basically my son. Do you really think you can wriggle yourself out of that?" Astaroth took a step forwards, clenching his fists, "Do you even understand how important he was for the war?"

"That is enough, Astaroth." Satan tempered his son.

"Rin, what do you have to say to these accusations?" The God of Gehenna finally allowed Rin to explain himself.

Of course, he couldn't tell him that he didn't want a war and wanted to protect Assiah and its inhabitants.

"Father, the reason why I defeated the Impure King was that he spread too far. He was destroying everything. And I tried to talk to him he didn't listen to me."

"And why did you think it would be a problem if he destroyed the land around him?" Satan didn't seem to be convinced.

"Pathetic excuses," Astaroth muttered, rolling his eyes in disbelief.

"I just thought that we," Rin paused shortly to find an excuse, "that we wanted to rule over Assiah and the humans. How can we rule over something dead?"

He felt so bad saying things like this. He averted his eyes, afraid that Satan could catch him lying.

"So you're saying that everything you did was for the benefit of Gehenna?" As far as Satan knew Rin had never lied to him. The Prince knew that lying to him was far more than a traitorous act. So what if his son was just misguided? What if he was really believing that his actions were benefitting Gehenna?

"Yes, Father. Please, I didn't mean any harm."

"What? Father, he is obviously lying! How could someone be so stupid to think that killing a demon would be good for his kind? He did nothing but disappoint you since he first went to Assiah." Astaroth intervened.

Rin's heart skipped a beat. Astaroth could ruin everything by exposing his lies.

"You are actually right, Astaroth. This all started when Rin first visited Assiah." Satan thought out loud.

"What? But that wasn't what I wanted to say." The King of Rot interrupted him just to be immediately silenced by Satan's glare.

"What is different since you first visited Assiah?" Satan continued his thoughts.

"Nothing, Father." Rin had the feeling that the conversation went into the completely wrong direction.

"Yes, it is. The first time you have been to the human realm was also the first time you met your brother Samael."

"No, I mean yes it was the first time I met him but he has nothing to do with this. Meph- I mean Samael taught me many things and he looked out for me while I was in Assiah." Rin tried to defend his second oldest brother. They may have had their differences but Rin was not going to blame him for his actions.

"Samael has always been a risk since he left Gehenna. I thought that could just let him have his fun as long as he didn't intervene in anything. I knew that his loyalty was wavering and I left you with him because I thought you signs of betrayal to me. I didn't think you would be manipulated by him."

"He didn't manipulate me, Father. Samael has nothing to do with all of this."

"Are you denying that he was present when you killed the Impure King? Because the demons summoned by those exorcists say they sensed him there."

"No, I'm not saying that he wasn't there but-"

"Then let me ask you one question. Where does your allegiance lie? Gehenna or Samael?"

"But there is no difference between tho-"

"Don't make me repeat this question."

"I can't make this choi-"

"RIN!" The flames around Satan grew bigger and wilder. The Prince flinched, noticing that he couldn't talk himself out of the question. Even Astaroth took a step away from the Demon God.

Nobody dared to say another word for minutes.

After a while, Satan spoke up again, calmer but not less dangerous.

"I give you one last chance to prove your loyalty. Do you understand? One. Last. Chance."

Rin nodded slightly, still trying to keep himself from trembling. He felt like a small child, completely helpless.

"After this mission, you will return to Gehenna immediately. Living in Assiah doesn't seem to be a good influence for you."

Having to leave Assiah broke Rin's heart but after his father's outburst, he still couldn't say anything.

"Your last chance is to force Samael to return to Gehenna by killing his vessel. Here, he will stand trial. I'm stripping him of his privileges as Demon King of Time." Satan stated calmly and determined.

"You're banishing Samael?" Astaroth couldn't believe what Satan said.

In thousands of years, it had never happened that a Demon King had to stand trial, let alone have his vessel killed to be brought back to Gehenna.

"It's something I should have done a long time ago." Satan simply commented.

"I have to kill Samael?" Rin finally found his voice. Like Astaroth, he was too stunned to properly react.

"I can't do that. He's my brother. I would never kill a single one of my brothers. It's just wrong. He is your son. How can you just pass judgment over him?" It was that moment when Rin realized his father's true nature.

"Is that your answer?" Satan leaned back in his throne.

Rin gathered all his courage.

"Yes, it is. What kind of father treats his sons like that? I never thought about this before because I didn't know it better."

"How dare you? You are my son and I am ordering you to kill your brother!"

"I am sick of following your orders! You made me hurt, no, kill innocent people. This is MY life and from now on I'm making my own decisions!" Rin finally stood up, looking directly at his father.

"With you as the God of Gehenna, it's no wonder that the humans hate and fear us!" The Prince's voice got louder. Nobody ever raised his voice against Satan. Astaroth was baffled by his younger brother's actions.

"Are you saying that someone else should sit on this throne? And who would that be? You?" The Demon God growled.

"If I had to. Not every demon is like you and hates the humans." He thought about Nee and Kuro, even Mephisto didn't particularly hate them, "And I'm not like you either."

After a small whistle, guards stormed the throne room.

"I'll send someone else to take down Samael. You will rot in the dungeons for eternity. Guards! This child is no longer your Prince. Take him."

The guards hesitated, attacking the heir to the throne was not an easy decision but Lord Satan said that he wasn't the Prince anymore.

Before any of them could act, a wall of blue flames surrounded Rin.

"Please don't attack. I don't want to hurt you." The young demon held them at enough distance to open a new Gehenna Gate.

"I won't just let you run away!" Satan growled, sending his own blue flames towards Rin.

To the surprise of everyone in the room he missed.

The flames just passed Rin, hitting an unfortunate guard and guaranteeing the boy's escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took the title from the second opening of Blue Exorcist calles "In my World"


	16. Chapter 15 - The Bet

When Rin stepped out the Gehenna Gate he immediately fell to his knees.

"Did I just tell Father that I'm going to dethrone him?"

He just realized what he had done.

"Fuck. What am I supposed to do? I'm not strong enough to take him on."

He sat down on the ground, thinking about everything that just happened.

He wasn't the Prince of Gehenna anymore, just an outlawed traitor.

Would Satan really send demons to kill him, his own son?

A few weeks ago, Rin wouldn't have believed that but Satan had just ordered him to kill Mephisto. Why wouldn't he send someone to kill Rin?

"Maybe I could just hide here in Assiah like Mephisto." He immediately disposed of this idea.

Satan would start a war if he didn't do something.

That's when it struck him.

"Mephisto! He doesn't know that they're coming for him." He stood up, trying to find out where he was.

"Where the fuck am I?" Rin asked himself before starting to climb up a tree.

When would Satan start his attack? Would he start to take him and Mephisto down before declaring war?

Reaching the top of the tree, he looked around.

He could see the Academy Town in the distance.

He jumped down the tree but before he started running towards his destination he realized that the exorcists now knew about his existence. Could he even get close to True Cross Academy?

"I really messed up." He sighed.

He decided to go to the Academy and think about how to contact Mephisto when he was there.

An hour later, Rin hid in the woods in front of one of True Cross Academy's gates.

"Ugh, I wished I could fly like Mephisto. I would have been way faster." He thought out loud groaning.

He watched the gate carefully. There were definitely more guards than before so he couldn't just walk in.

He waited for a long time, hoping that he could pass the gate when the exorcists changed shifts but it all happened too quickly.

Maybe he could distract them and slip through the warding. He looked around, trying to think of a plan.

He couldn't ask another demon since everyone was out hunting him.

That's when he got an idea. A very risky idea but it was better than nothing.

Focusing on the tip of a giant tree he could see on the opposite side of the gate, he ignited a blue flame. If someone noticed it they would definitely leave their posts.

Unfortunately, a blue flame on top of a tree with only the blue sky as the background wasn't as visible as Rin had hoped.

"Fuck, what am I going to do now?" He cursed, making the flames disappear again.

He turned around to leave and find another way when he heard a voice.

_"Hey!"_

Rin froze. Someone discovered he was here.

Slowly, he turned around. At first, he was confused when he didn't see anyone but then something small, furry and surprisingly heavy landed on his head, dragging him to the ground.

_"You're back! Are you here to play with me again?"_

"What the…? Kuro?" Rin asked baffled, being pinned down by a slowly growing Cat Sidhe.

_"You promised to play with me again!"_ The giant black cat sounded excited. He jumped off of the young demon, taking a playful fighting stance.

"Yeah right, but I don't have time right now. How did you even find me?"

Kuro stopped what he was doing and sat down obviously disappointed while shrinking to his original size.

_"Well, that wasn't really hard. Every demon nearby can probably feel your presence. I thought you came here to play. Why don't you ever have time?"_ The Cat Sidhe explained whining.

"I'm sorry but this is really important. Can I ask you a question?"

The Cat Sidhe sighed, _"Okay what is it?"_

"I need to talk to Mephisto. Can you go in there and tell him to meet me? Please, Kuro. It's literally a matter of life and death."

Kuro seemed to think about it for a while.

_"Okay, but then you have to promise me that you're coming over to play with me and that you'll bring me catnip wine!"_

"Alright, alright. Whatever you want."

_"Yay! Just wait here. See you later."_ Kuro shouted before turning his back on Rin.

"Wait, umm, Kuro. You didn't hear about anything concerning me or Kyoto, did you?" The young demon asked hesitantly.

Kuro seemed like a good person or cat. Even if he didn't know him that well he could tell that the Cat Sidhe was really loyal to Shirou Fujimoto. There was still a chance that he would tell the exorcists about him.

_"Hear about you?"_ Kuro seemed to think about it for a while, _"No not really, Shirou hasn't visited me since then but I could see the blue lights in the sky. That was really pretty."_

With that Kuro made his way back to the academy.

"Pretty?" Rin muttered, wondering about Kuro's reaction.

Demons and humans alike usually cowered before his flames, nobody had ever called them pretty.

The Cat Sidhe was a truly peculiar demon.

Rin sat down on a tree branch and waited for Mephisto to show up.

He started throwing little rocks against an oak on the other side of the little clearing.

He hoped that Mephisto received his message.

When he heard a cracking behind him he jumped up.

Had he been discovered?

There was no way someone could have found him.

After Kuro left, he had been completely quiet.

Before he could find out what caused the crack behind him pink smoke clouded his vision.

"What the-" Rin found himself on top of one of the academy's towers.

"Well hello, little brother. What brings you here again? You must know that every exorcist in Japan, no wait, you can scratch the 'in Japan' part, every exorcist is out hunting you." He was greeted by Mephisto who floated just a few feet in the air on his armchair.

"I know but that's not important right now. I have to talk to you." Rin came to the point, "Listen, I was back home in Gehenna and talked to Father."

"So, what did he say about his precious heir saving exorcists?" Mephisto asked more or less interested.

"He came to the conclusion that you're manipulating me and then he banished you, taking away your title as King of Space and Time." Rin quickly explained.

For what seemed to be the first time in his life Mephisto was actually surprised, no startled.

He quickly regained posture and coughed slightly.

"Is that so? I'm guessing that you're not just here to tell me that. So what are we going to do now? Are you going to attack me? Is this going to end in an epic battle between brothers? Which I will win, obviously." Mephisto made dramatic gestures while swirling his umbrella around.

"What? No! I told him that I wouldn't do that and then he banished me too." Rin sighed shortly.

"Who would have thought that? You are full of surprises today. To think that you would betray the person you tried to please for your whole life. This is turning out even more interesting than I could have ever imagined!" Mephisto grinned widely.

"I wonder how you are going to survive when you're persecuted by humans and demons alike."

Rin sighed. Should he tell Mephisto about his plan? It really was more an idea than a plan but he couldn't do it without help.

"I'm not planning to run. I want to take Father's throne and prevent a war between Assiah and Gehenna."

Now Mephisto burst out laughing.

"You will-" Laughter, "You are trying to-" Little tears appeared in Mephisto's eyes, "You think you can-"

This went on for a while and Rin was left with no choice other than waiting until his brother had calmed down.

Finally, after minutes, when Mephisto got hold of himself Rin started talking again.

"I know it seems impossible-"

"Impossible? I have often made fun of your intelligence but I would have never thought you were suicidal. You're little firecracker want to take on Satan! He is going to roast you on the spot if you try that."

"I don't have a choice! I need to stop him before he can declare the war between humans and demons!"

"Okay, I can't stop you but I can make this more fun." Mephisto grinned.

"Fun? How can you say that? People could die!" Saying that Rin was upset would have been an understatement.

"Ugh, who would have thought that? You're almost as uptight as Egyn." The now unofficial King of Time rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Let me put it differently. I say that you can't become the new God of Gehenna which you will be as soon as you sit on that throne. If you can prove to me the opposite I will help you establish a relationship between you and the Vatican so you can bring this peace you're talking about." He explained.

"You would do that?" Rin knew that Mephisto could make talking to the Grigori a lot easier. He almost agreed when he suddenly remembered who he was talking to.

"Wait. What happens if I lose?"

Mephisto gasped, "I can't believe it. There might actually be a brain in there."

"Just tell me."

"Fine, if you lose, and somehow survive the confrontation with Father, you get a front row seat in the war. You will be trapped in a mirror dimension where you can see everything that's happening but you won't be able to interact with this world. Maybe I'll let you out when everything is over and it's too late to change anything. So, what do you say? Deal?"

Rin first wanted to deny but then he hesitated.

He would need Mephisto if he wanted to have a diplomatic relationship with the Vatican.

But what if he really lost? He would have to watch people suffer if he didn't die. Mephisto could truly be a cruel person.

"Alright fine." He growled.

"Perfect!" Mephisto shouted gleefully, "Now then, let's make this deal binding."

"Eins, Zwei, Drei!" He tapped his pink umbrella on Rin's head.

"Ow! What was that, you idiot?" Rin rubbed the spot the umbrella hit him.

"Now you're not able to weasel yourself out of this bet if you're about to lose. Also, there will be no misunderstanding who won." Mephisto explained before adding something under his breath, "I'm not going to make this mistake again."

"I didn't mean to. You will see, I'm going to stop Father." Rin took a deep breath, smiling confidently.

"Youth's naiveté. This is going to be fun."

* * *

Meanwhile in Gehenna Satan was boiling from anger. Two of his sons had betrayed him. He should have suspected something like this from Mephisto but it was truly surprising that Rin would follow his older brother.

"Father? You wanted to see us?" Iblis asked, entering the throne room with Egyn, Amaimon and Astaroth.

"Yes, I have a mission for you." The Demon God laid back in his throne.

"Please, can I ask you a question first?" The King of Fire stepped forward.

After a small nod of Satan, Iblis went on.

"Is it true what Astaroth told us? Did you really outlaw Samael and Rin?"

"Yes, it is true. They both betrayed Gehenna."

"But Father, I don't know about Samael but Rin is-" Iblis tried to defend his youngest brother.

"Are you questioning my decision?" Satan growled, clenching his fist.

The King of Fire quickly noticed that his father wasn't in the mood to discuss what he had done.

"Of course not. I'm sorry." He apologized, taking a step back.

"Too bad Big Brother is outlawed too. It was fun messing with the exorcists with him." Amaimon stated as apathetic as ever.

"What is this mission you need us for? It must be really important if you call four of the Ba'al." Egyn said with his usual calm and arrogant attitude.

Satan was the only one that deserved the King of Water's respect and he made sure that everyone who talked to him knew how he thought about them.

"It is important. Even though they are a disgrace to me I know not to underestimate Samael and Rin. I want you all to go to Assiah and bring them both back here. I don't care in what condition Samael will be but make sure not to destroy Rin's body." The ruler of Gehenna ordered.

Egyn immediately nodded, "Of course, Father. Consider it done."

"Can I ask why we're not allowed to hurt that little bastard?" Astaroth asked.

"No, you can't. Just do as I say." Satan growled, glaring at the King of Rot.

"Yes, I'm sorry for asking." It was obvious that Astaroth would try getting his answer if Satan was in a better mood.

"Now go. I want them back here as soon as possible." Satan ordered.

After they left the Demon God looked at his still clenched fist.

How could he have missed when he sent his flames after Rin?

It didn't make any sense.

Even though Rin also possessed the power of the blue flames he could never be powerful enough to redirect them.

These were still Satan's flames and his alone. His son was simply copying it, using the royal flames as if they belonged to him.

It upset the Demonic God.

It upset him enough to use his plan B.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the mistake Mephisto mentions refers to Goethe's Faust in which the devil Mephistopheles makes a bet with the protagonist Faust and it ends with Mephisto thinking he clearly won the bet but he's actually tricked by Faust. In the end, it is really up to the reader's interpretation who won the bet. So this time with Rin Mephisto is going to make sure there is a clear winner.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys!  
I hope you liked this little prologue.  
Don't worry, the following chapters are way longer.
> 
> Also, I want to mention that I am not a native English speaker which is why I sometimes make really stupid mistakes while writing. I'm trying to find them all with my beta reader but I can't promise that it's completely without flaws.


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